Cruise summary report
Cruise Info. | |
---|
Ship name (ship code) | RRS Shackleton (74SF) |
---|
Cruise identifier | S8/79 |
---|
Cruise period | 1979-08-31 — 1979-09-30 |
---|
Status | Completed |
---|
Port of departure | Barry, United Kingdom |
---|
Port of return | Gibraltar, Gibraltar |
---|
Purpose | Research |
---|
Objectives | 1) Deployment of 5 OBS to record microearthquakes on the axis of the Mid-atlantic ridge. This would be the first full scale deployment of the MK-II OBS designed to record continously for upto one month. On this cruise deployments of 2-3 weeks were planned.
2) Observation of water temperature close to the sea floor in the median valley with the IOS Temperature Telemetering Pinger (TTP), in a search for temperature anomalies associated with geothermal springs.
3) Coring sediments in an area south of King's Trough centerd approximately at 42N, 22W.
4) Development of a prototype Bouyant Programmed Pinger on the Biscay Abbysal Plain just off the western approaches of the English Channel.
5) Testing a new ocean bottom hydrophone developed at the department of Geodesy and Geophysics, Cambridge University. Two Cambridge personnel participated in the cruise to carry out this work.
6) Pressure testing the Blacknet OBS in Peake Deep (3142 ucf, 5964 cm) in preperation for the deep deployments planned for the LADLE experiment in early 1980 on Discovery cruise 107.
7) Should time permit, a bathymetric survey would be conducted in the vicinity of 49N, 34W to provide data for the new GEBCO chart in an area of sparse coverage.
8) Bathymetric, magnetic and gravity data would be aquired continuously on passage. However, no shipboard computer or automatic data logging was avaliable on this cruise. |
---|
Chief scientist | Tim J G Francis (Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Wormley Laboratory) |
---|
Cruise report | (0.32 MB) |
---|
Ocean/sea areas | |
General | North East Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W) |
---|
Track charts | |
---|
Measurements | |
Physical oceanography | |
---|
Subsurface temperature and salinity measurements | Quantity: 27 Description: discrete temp.measurements.Cont.temp.profiler from surf.to seafloor |
Geology and geophysics | |
---|
Core - soft bottom | Quantity: number of cores = 8 |
In-situ seafloor measurement/sampling | Quantity: 1 Description: long term mooring to test the bearing str.of deep ocean sediments |
Single-beam echosounding | Quantity: track kilometres = 5741 |
Single channel seismic reflection | Quantity: 7 Description: ocean bottom seismometers |
Gravity measurements | Quantity: track kilometres = 5741.2 |
Magnetic measurements | Quantity: track kilometres = 5741.2 |