Mission
 |
 |
 |
On July 9, 2008, deep-sea scientists and crew aboard the research vessel R/V Revelle, will sail east from Woods Hole, Massachusetts to start their research voyage on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR). |
The R/V Revelle will visit three different sites along the MAR, viz. Rainbow (36°13'N 33°54'W), Lucky Strike (37°17'N 32°16'W) and Snake Pit (23°22'N 44°57'W), and a fourth off-axis site called Lost City (30°10'N 42°08'W). | During this research cruise we will be using the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Jason II, to visit the seafloor and collect water, rock and biological samples for analysis. We will also deploy numerous on site experiments and geochemical sensors. |
The overall mission of the cruise is to study the geochemistry, geology, microbiology and biology of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge vent sites. |
||
The three major research foci of the cruise are: |
||
|
|
 chimney with temperature probe |
The science party will post updates about their research here once we reach our study sites. We should arrive at Rainbow vents around July 15th, where we stay on station for about 10 days. We will then head up to the Lucky Strike vent fields and spend 4 days sampling at these sites. On the 28th of July, several of the scientists will disembark onto a small boat from the Azores, Portugal on the R/V Arquipélago . Three of the scientists onboard the R/V Arquipélago will join the R/V Revelle. We will then head south to Lost City vents for 2 days of diving, after which we head to Snake Pit vents for 3 additional dives. Finally, we will head back to Miami, Florida around August 8th. |
||
