RRS James Cook JC224 (ULTRA)
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RRS James Cook (740H) |
| Cruise identifier | JC224 (ULTRA) |
| Cruise period | 2022-03-03 — 2022-04-20 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Southampton, United Kingdom |
| Port of return | Southampton, United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | Project ULTRA aims to assess the processes of formation, alteration and preservation of ultra-mafic hosted seafloor hydrothermal seafloor massive sulphide deposits on mid-ocean ridges. These rocks are ultramafic – magnesium-rich and are also rich in precious and critical metals like cobalt, nickel and platinum. The seafloor massive sulphide deposits are known as μSMS. Key to expedition ULTRA#1 was seafloor drilling to get the third dimension pf the deposits and to test hypotheses about the controls on mineralisation sub-seafloor. Drilling using a seabed drill is the only realistic way to recover these shallow sections and the BGS seafloor rock drill RD2 was modified over the past 4 years for this project, with many issues that beset previous drilling addressed. The area chosen is the 13° 30'N ocean core complex (OCC) region of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge where a number of μSMS hydrothermal sites are located. |
| Chief scientist | Bramley J Murton (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton) |
| Cruise report |  (175.32 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North West Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W) |
| Specific | Mid-Atlantic Ridge |
| Track charts | (0.08 MB) |
| Measurements | |
| Physical oceanography | |
| Neutrally buoyant floats | Quantity: number of deployments = 10 Description: Six SPOT buoys deployed |
| Geology and geophysics | |
| Dredge | Quantity: number of samples = 12 Description: Rock dredges for later petrological analyses |
| Core - rock | Quantity: number of cores = 48 Description: Sediment multi cores for later geochemical analyses |
| Core - soft bottom | Quantity: number of cores = 43 Description: Sediment cores for later geochemical analyses and dating |
| Geophysical measurements made at depth | Quantity: activity duration in hours = 1200 Description: ocean bottom seismometers deployed/recovered |
| Other geological/geophysical measurements | Quantity: number of samples = 78 Description: Discrete samples collected by ROV for later petrological analyses |
| Other geological/geophysical measurements | Quantity: number of cores = 4 Description: RD2 seabed rockdrill cores taken for geochmeical analyses 2 to 21mbsf |
| Moorings, landers, buoys | |
| Physical oceanography | |
| Neutrally buoyant floats | 31° 43' 59" N 22° 23' 59" W — 1 x SPOT Float deployed |
| Neutrally buoyant floats | 28° 45' 0" N 26° 37' 0" W — 1 x SPOT Float deployed |
| Neutrally buoyant floats | 29° 55' 59" N 24° 34' 59" W — 2 x SPOT Float deployed |
| Neutrally buoyant floats | 30° 22' 0" N 23° 58' 59" W — 1 x SPOT Float deployed |
| Neutrally buoyant floats | 13° 33' 0" N 44° 55' 59" W — 2 x SPOT Float deployed |
| Neutrally buoyant floats | 38° 13' 59" N 16° 56' 59" W — 1 x SPOT Float deployed |
| Neutrally buoyant floats | 14° 0' 0" N 44° 22' 59" W — 2 x SPOT Float deployed |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | 13° 30' 0" N 44° 58' 59" W — SVP |
| Geology and geophysics | |
| Dredge | 13° 30' 0" N 44° 30' 0" W — 7 x rock dredges |
| Core - rock | 13° 30' 0" N 44° 58' 59" W — 12 x multicore sediment sampling sites |
| Core - rock | 13° 30' 0" N 44° 58' 59" W — 43 x gravity cores deployed |
| Core - soft bottom | 13° 30' 0" N 44° 58' 59" W — 43 x gravity cores |
| Geophysical measurements made at depth | 13° 33' 0" N 44° 55' 59" W — 8 x ocean bottom seismometers deployed/recovered |
| Other geological/geophysical measurements | 13° 30' 0" N 44° 58' 59" W — 23 x HyBIS ROV dives for survey and sampling |
| Other geological/geophysical measurements | 13° 30' 0" N 44° 58' 59" W — 4 x RD2 seabed rockdrill sites drilled to max 21mbsf |
