RRS Charles Darwin CD123
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RRS Charles Darwin (74AB) |
| Cruise identifier | CD123 |
| Cruise period | 2000-07-19 — 2000-09-15 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Govan, United Kingdom |
| Port of return | Southampton, United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | This cruise formed part of the continuing Atlantic Margin Environmental Survey (AMES). The objectives of the cruise were:
1. to continue the AMES process in the deep waters to the north and west of Scotland on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI); 2. to carry out a seabed sampling programme in the Fladen Ground area of the North Sea on behalf of the DTI; and 3. to conduct commercially funded seabed surveys in areas adjacent to those addressed in objectives 1 and 2. The cruise encompassed a number of survey areas: Ymir Ridge, Wyville Thomson Ridge (including Darwin Mounds area), Faroe Bank Channel, Faroe-Shetland Channel (axial transect), West Shetland Slope (bathymetric transect), West Shetland Slope (contourite body), Enterprise survey (northwest of Shetland), Texaco survey (deep Faroe-Shetland Channel), North of Shetland slope (Tranches 65-67), Statoil / BP survey (North of Shetland slope), Marathon survey (Brae oil field, central North Sea), and the Fladen Ground (central North Sea). In each of these areas seabed samples were obtained (Day grab, box core, Megacore, gravity corer) to study various environmental parameters (hydrocarbons, heavy metals, particle size) and macrobenthos communities. In the deep-water survey areas photographic and video observations (SOC WASP system) of the seabed and its fauna were also undertaken. |
| Chief scientist | Brian James Bett (Southampton Oceanography Centre) |
| Project | AMES |
| Coordinating body | NOCS |
| Cruise report |  (5.84 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North Sea North East Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W) |
| Specific | Ymir Ridge, Wyville Thomson Ridge, Faroe Bank Channel, Faroe-Shetland Channel, West Shetland Slope, Fladen Ground |
| Track charts | (0.08 MB) |
| Measurements | |
| Geology and geophysics | |
| Grab | Quantity: number of hauls = 227 Description: Day grab |
| Core - soft bottom | Quantity: number of cores = 385 Description: 12 Megacore02, 62 Megacore04, 89 Megacore06, 115 Megacore08, 30 Megacore10 and 77 Megacore12 |
| Core - soft bottom | Quantity: number of cores = 42 Description: Box Core |
| Core - soft bottom | Quantity: number of cores = 21 Description: BGS cores |
| Bottom photography | Quantity: number of stations = 2 Description: Bathysnap camera moorings |
| Bottom photography | Quantity: number of observations = 58 Description: Wasp towed camera vehicle |
