RRS Charles Darwin CD145
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RRS Charles Darwin (74AB) |
| Cruise identifier | CD145 |
| Cruise period | 2003-03-12 — 2003-04-09 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Muscat, Oman |
| Port of return | Victoria, Seychelles |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | "Benthic ecology and biogeochemistry of the Pakistan Margin". As the first in a series of four cruises (CD145, CD146, CD150, CD151):
a) Establish a transect of six sites spanning the oxygen minimum zone as it impinges the seabed of the Pakistan Margin; b) Characterise the water column overlying these sites by CTD profiling and chemical determinations from water bottles; c) Characterise the seabed around these sites by acoustic remote sensing (12 kHz swath bathymetry, 10 kHz echo-sounding, 3.5 kHz seabed profiling) and photography (video and still images); d) Detailed seabed sampling of these sites (various corers) to assess a suite of biological and biogeochemical paramters; e) To assess the medabenthos of the area by trawling and photography. |
| Chief scientist | Brian James Bett (Southampton Oceanography Centre) |
| Project | Benthic processes in the Arabian Sea: mechanistic relationships between benthos, |
| Coordinating body | NERC, UK |
| Cruise report |  (2.99 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | Arabian Sea |
| Specific | Indus Margin; Pakistan Margin |
| Track charts | (0.25 MB) |
| Measurements | |
| Physical oceanography | |
| Water bottle stations | Quantity: number of stations = 7 Description: Water bottles - various chemical parameters |
| CTD stations | Quantity: number of stations = 7 Description: CTD casts + 02, transmissometer and fluorometer |
| Chemical oceanography | |
| Oxygen | Quantity: number of stations = 7 Description: CTD casts + 02, transmissometer and fluorometer |
| Biology and fisheries | |
| Phytoplankton pigs (eg chlorophyll, fluorescence) | Quantity: number of stations = 7 Description: CTD casts + 02, transmissometer and fluorometer |
| Zoobenthos | Quantity: number of stations = 9 Description: Seabed trawling - ecology and biochemistry |
| Geology and geophysics | |
| Core - soft bottom | Quantity: number of stations = 6 Description: Various corer - various biological, biochemical, chemical, geochemical and geological parameters |
| Bottom photography | Quantity: number of stations = 14 Description: Seabed photography (video + stills) |
| Single-beam echosounding | Description: 10 kHz echo-sounding, largely continuous |
| Multi-beam echosounding | Description: 12 kHz swath bathymetry, limited extent on Indus Margin |
| Single channel seismic reflection | Description: 3.5 kHz seabed profiling, limited extent on Indus Margin |
| Moorings, landers, buoys | |
| Geology and geophysics | |
| Bottom photography | 23° 30' 0" N 59° 30' 0" E — "Bathysnap" seabed time-lapse photography, recovery, 19 December 2002 to 12 March 2003, depth: 3008m |
| Data held at BODC | |
| Discrete samples | |
| 11 CTD frame plus rosette sampler | Transmittance and attenuance of the water column Salinity of the water column Temperature of the water column Dissolved oxygen parameters in the water column Concentration of suspended particulate material in the water column Density of the water column Chlorophyll pigment concentrations in water bodies |
| 34 Sample taken from ship's non-toxic supply | Salinity of the water column |
