RRS James Cook JC059
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RRS James Cook (740H) |
| Cruise identifier | JC059 |
| Cruise period | 2011-04-21 — 2011-05-05 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Birkenhead, United Kingdom |
| Port of return | Birkenhead, United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | This BGS marine geophysical and sampling survey onboard the RRS James Cook forms part of the BGS core science programme to map the geology of the UK waters. Data was collected from the North-Western Approaches area, incorporating the Sea of the Hebrides, Malin Sea and North Channel region, and extending landwards into sea lochs, including Loch Linnhe and Loch Scavaig.
The data collect will be used to to address the following: - Identify glacial and post-glacial sediment transport pathways. Defining a chronology of advance and retreat ice movement by the study of glacial features preserved at seabed, such as end-moraines, will provide a better understand the ice-sheet flow system. Whereas, continuous Holocene sediment cores from areas such as Loch Linnhe and the Much Deep will provide information on post-glacial development in these areas. - Determine the internal structure of geomorphological features preserved on the seabed. Understand the formation and preservation of these features, identified from new multibeam swath-bathymetry in the Antrim Coast, will help to reveal the evolution of the marine landscape since the ice retreat. - Constrain stratigraphy in order to calibrate the seismic data. To investigate how the North-Western Approaches region developed it is crucial to constrain the seismic stratigraphy and lithology that has been interpreted only from the seismic data and boreholes inland. Three distinct sampling techniques were used to recover seabed samples: the BGS 15m rock drill, BGS 6m vibrocorer and NIOZ piston corer. Most of the cores collected were logged, using the MSCL from Leicester University, and described onboard. Sub-bottom site-specific profiling data were also gathered using the SBP120 installed in the RRS James Cook. And, additionally to the initial work plan, a multibeam bathymetry dataset was acquired from the Sound of Kilbrannan. |
| Chief scientist | Joana D L Gafeira (British Geological Survey, Edinburgh) |
| Project | MAREMAP |
| Coordinating body | British Geological Survey (BGS) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | Inner Seas off the West Coast of Scotland |
| Specific | Sea of the Hebrides, Malin Sea, Loch Linnhe, North Channel and Sound of Kilbrannan |
| Track charts |  (0.43 MB) |
| Measurements | |
| Biology and fisheries | |
| Zooplankton | Quantity: number of hauls = 10 Description: Zooplankton nets collected from the water column upper 30 meters |
| Geology and geophysics | |
| Core - rock | Quantity: number of cores = 8 Description: Collected with BGS Rockdrill 15 m. When possible, cores were logged with MSCL |
| Core - soft bottom | Quantity: number of cores = 21 Description: 7 cores collected with the BGS vibrocorer and 14 cores collected with the NIOZ Piston corer. Most cores were logged onboard with MSCL |
| Multi-beam echosounding | Quantity: survey square kilometres = 44 Description: Multibeam echosounding EM710 |
| Single channel seismic reflection | Quantity: track kilometres = 277.6 Description: Sub-bottom profiles acquired with the SBP 120 for sampling site investigation and during the multibeam survey. |
