nano 2007-07-19 06:53
Researchers will probe the Gakkel Ridge during expedition.
Scientists and engineers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have just completed a successful test of new robotic vehicles designed for use beneath the ice of the Arctic Ocean. The multidisciplinary research team will now use those vehicles to conduct the first search for life on the seafloor of the world’s most isolated ocean.
WHOI researchers have built two new autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) and a new tethered, remote controlled sampling system specifically for the difficult challenges of operations in the Arctic ice. They hope to discover exotic seafloor life and submarine hot springs in a region of the ocean that has been mostly cut off from other ecosystems for at least 26 million years.
The 30-member research team will depart on July 1 from Longyearbyen, Svalbard, for a rare expedition to study the Gakkel Ridge, the extension of the mid-ocean ridge system which separates the North American tectonic plate from the Eurasian plate beneath the Arctic Ocean. The 40-day cruise on the Oden—a 108-meter long (354-foot) icebreaker operated by the Swedish Maritime Administration—will take researchers close to the geographic North Pole.
The research team for the Arctic Gakkel Vents Expedition (AGAVE) includes specialists in each field of deep-sea exploration, with scientists and engineers from the United States, Norway, Germany, Japan, and Sweden. WHOI geophysicist Robert Reves-Sohn will serve as chief scientist. Fellow principal investigators include: Tim Shank, a hydrothermal vent biologist from WHOI; Hanumant Singh, a WHOI engineer and vehicle developer; marine chemist Henrietta Edmonds of the University of Texas at Austin, who sailed on the last research expedition to the Gakkel Ridge in 2001; Susan Humphris, a WHOI geochemist who has surveyed dozens of hydrothermal vent sites around the world; and Peter Winsor, a WHOI oceanographer who studies Arctic Ocean circulation and its implications for climate. Major funding for the expedition and for vehicle development was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).Read more
