RRS Charles Darwin CD14A
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RRS Charles Darwin (74AB) |
| Cruise identifier | CD14A |
| Cruise period | 1986-07-29 — 1986-08-10 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Jeddah, Saudi Arabia |
| Port of return | Victoria, Seychelles |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | Gravity, magnetic and bathymetry surveys; exhibition at Jedda (not all objectives achieved).
Cruise initiated as a three day extension to the Patras to Seychelles passage leg and intended for geophysical (gravity, magnetic and bathymetry) site surveying in the Red Sea for the Ocean drilling Program. The site surveying depended on gaining permissions to work in Saudi Arabian, Sudanese and Ethiopian waters. Permission was only granted for Sudanese waters of less than 1000 m depth. Since all high priority drill sites were in the central rift area, the original objectives for the cruise were abandoned. An alternative programme was adopted and designed to map the poorly known older series of magnetic anomalies in the Somali abyssal plain. Atmospheric dust sampling and sky photography was also carried out. |
| Chief scientist | Carol A Williams (University of Cambridge Department of Earth Sciences) |
| Cruise report |  (0.22 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | Indian Ocean Red Sea Gulf of Aden |
| Specific | Seychelles/ Jedda |
| Track charts |  |
| Measurements | |
| Meteorology | |
| Other meteorological measurements | Description: cloud photographs |
| Geology and geophysics | |
| Multi-beam echosounding | Quantity: track kilometres = 2000 |
| Gravity measurements | Quantity: track kilometres = 2000 |
| Magnetic measurements | Quantity: track kilometres = 1650 |
