RRS Charles Darwin CD9B
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RRS Charles Darwin (74AB) |
| Cruise identifier | CD9B |
| Cruise period | 1985-12-06 — 1986-01-06 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Lisbon, Portugal |
| Port of return | Glasgow, United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | The cruise represented a continuation of the DoE research programme on oceanic radioactive waste disposal. The objectives were:
1. To use TOBI to provide detailed sidescan sonar and a high resolution sediment profiler survey. 2. To use TOBI over the area of faults that had been intensively studied in previous cruises. 3. Pop-Up Pore Pressure Instruments (PUPPIs) were to be deployed in order to determine in-situ hydraulic gradients and hence infer pore-water movemtns (if any) in the sediments. 4. Heat flow measurements along two traverses. 5. WASP camera runs over an abyssal hill to delineate field of manganese nodules. 6. Kasten, piston and box coring to obtain samples for further study of manganese nodules. 7. Kasten and piston coring to obtain samples for geotechnical testing. 8. Seismic reflection profiling. 9. Attempt to delineate the 20 m deep sand layer. 10. Laying of a mooring containing sediment traps in the GME area for the IOS Biology group. 11. Recovery of a mooring containing an Automatic Listening Station (ALS) for IOS Marine Physics Group. 12. Recovery of a seabed camera (Bathysnap) for IOS biologists. |
| Chief scientist | Roger C Searle (Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Wormley Laboratory) |
| Cruise report |  (1.15 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North East Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W) |
| Specific | Great Meteor East/ Madeira Abyssal Plain |
| Track charts |  |
| Measurements | |
| Geology and geophysics | |
| Core - soft bottom | Quantity: number of deployments = 4 |
| Bottom photography | Quantity: number of stations = 3 |
| In-situ seafloor measurement/sampling | Quantity: number of deployments = 5 Description: in-situ sediment pore pressure |
| Multi-beam echosounding | Quantity: track kilometres = 4000 |
| Single channel seismic reflection | Quantity: track kilometres = 800 |
| Magnetic measurements | Quantity: track kilometres = 4000 |
