BODC Cruise Metadata Report for RRS James Cook (740H) cruise JC027

Introduction

This report collates information from the BODC cruise inventory and oceanographic databases. It presents

Cruise Inventory Information
A summary of BODC data holdings for the cruise from the
- National Oceanographic Database
- Projects Database
References - including cruise tracks and cruise reports

Cruise Inventory Information

Long name	RRS James Cook (740H) cruise JC027
Short name	JC027
Objectives and Narrative	Timing and frequency of landslide and gravity flow geohazards along the eastern North Atlantic continental margin This research cruise was a contribution towards the NERC strategic science programme (Oceans 2025). The main scientific objective was to improve our understanding of landslide and gravity flow geohazards along the eastern North Atlantic margin, in particular by studying event timing and frequency in the recent geological record. Special attention was being paid to geohazards that may potentially impact UK communities and infrastructure. Shallow piston coring of turbidite successions in deep basins produces the best record of recent (<50 kyrs) gravity flow events on adjacent margins (e.g. Weaver et al., 2000), but the availability of pre-existing data from the study area was patchy. Consequently, a key aim of JC027 was to 'fill the gaps' and recover cores from basins, or sections of basins, where data are urgently required. A total of 60 piston and megacores was successfully recovered during the cruise, from a series of lower canyon and basin floor environments. Shallow geophysical data, including subbottom profiles and hull-mounted multibeam bathymetry, were collected quasi-continuously during the cruise to define local environment around core sites. In complex areas, such as seafloor scours, Autosub6000 was deployed to collect high-resolution EM2000 multibeam bathymetry.
Ship	RRS James Cook
Departure Port	Las Palmas, Spain
Departure Date	2008-08-05
Arrival Port	Portland Harbour, United Kingdom
Arrival Date	2008-09-03
Principal Scientist(s)	Russell B Wynn (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton)
Responsible Organisation	National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
Associated Project(s)	Oceans 2025
IHB Sea Areas Visited	North East Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W)
Marsden Squares Visited	109/110/145/146
Work Area Description	North Canary Islands slope; Selvage Islands slope; Agadir Basin; lower Agadir Canyon; Seine Abyssal Plain; Horseshoe Abyssal Plain; lower Sao Vicente Canyon; Tagus Abyssal Plain; lower Setubal/Cascais Canyon; Tagus Abyssal Plain; lower Nazare Canyon; Theta Gap; Biscay Abyysal Plain; Whittard Channel
Unable to lookup cruise bounds at this time
Work Area Bounding Polygon
Southern Limit	unknown
Northern Limit	unknown
Western Limit	unknown
Eastern Limit	unknown

Cruise Inventory Datasets

Geology and geophysics
Core - soft bottom	Quantity: number of cores = 5 Description: Mega cores. All mounted with 8 tubes; whole cores in BOSCORF; due to be split in 2009
Core - soft bottom	Quantity: number of cores = 55 Description: Piston cores. All cores split, photographed, described and retained; now held in BOSCORF
Geophysical measurements made at depth	Quantity: number of surveys = 5 Description: Autosub6000 deployed with Simrad EM2000 multibeam echosounder; each survey area roughly 20-25 km3
Multi-beam echosounding	Description: Simrad hull-mounted EM120 multibeam echosounder; data quality variable; run quasi-continuously throughout cruise (several hundred line km)
Single-beam echosounding	Description: Towfish-mounted 3.5 kHz subbottom profiler; run quasi-continuously throughout cruise (several hundred line km)
Single-beam echosounding	Description: Simrad hull-mounted SBP120 subbottom profiler; data quality variable: run quasi-continuously throughout cruise (several hundred line km)