NEPTUNE Canada

R/V Thomas G. Thompson sailing from Esquimalt harbour. (Click to enlarge.)

Cruise Objectives

Our September 2011 maintenance cruise will sail aboard the R/V Thomas G. Thompson. During this cruise we hope to accomplish the following.

ODP 1027

• diagnose a cable problem with the piezometer
• deploy autonomous bottom pressure recorders at three new sites 25km from the ODP 1027 node (DONE)

Endeavour

• reconnect Main Endeavour vent Field (MEF) to Endeavour node (DONE)
• replace one short-period seismometer (DONE) and deploy two new ones
• replace the NE regional circulation mooring
• install two new circulation moorings (very calm seas required) (1 DONE)
• deploy Tempo-mini, an exciting new integrated instrument platform developed by our partners at IFREMER at Grotto Vent in the main Endeavour vent field (MEF) (DONE)
• deploy Benthic And Resistivity Sensors (BARS) devices at MEF (DONE) and Mothra vent field

ODP 889

• deploy a refurbished Imagenex multibeam sonar (a.k.a. "Kraki") to Bubbly Gulch
• retrieve a seismometer auxiliary platform
• download data from CORK 1364A

Barkley Canyon

• deploy Wally II to the Barkley Hydrates outcrops (DONE)
• deploy an upgraded temperature probe array to the Barkley Hydrates
• fetch, clean and re-deploy Barkley Benthic Pod 3 along with a new Kongsberg sonar and an HD video camera system (DONE)
• swap bottles on the Barkley Benthic Pod 3 sediment trap (DONE)

IFREMER's Julien Legrand with Tempo-mini. (Click to enlarge.)

NE RCM components, 20 Sep 2010. (Click to enlarge.)