RRS Discovery D159
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RRS Discovery (74E3) |
| Cruise identifier | D159 |
| Cruise period | 1986-05-15 — 1986-06-25 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Falmouth, United Kingdom |
| Port of return | Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | 1. To return to Great Meteor East (GME) on the Madeira Abyssal Plain to carry out follow-up studies of biogeochemical fluxes over the proposed radioactive waste disposal site.
2. To recover, service and redeploy sediment trap and transmissometer moorings at GME and make comparisons of pumped particle data with trap. 3. To complete a transect of stations along 26N taking particle water samples for chemical analysis to estimate fluxes. 4. To locate and sample plumes produced by hydrothermal venting from the TAG field on the mid-Atlantic ridge. The programme was to include studies on water and particle chemistry, microbiology and general biology (nekton). |
| Chief scientist | William Simpson (Institute of Oceanographic Sciences Wormley Laboratory) |
| Cruise report |  (1.17 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North West Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W) |
| Specific | N.E. Atlantic |
| Track charts | (0.04 MB) |
| Measurements | |
| Physical oceanography | |
| Water bottle stations | Quantity: number of samples = 8 Description: FIDO and CTD rosette samples were collected at GME. |
| Chemical oceanography | |
| Trace elements | Quantity: number of samples = 8 Description: FIDO and CTD rosette samples were collected at GME. |
| Contamination | |
| Suspended matter | Quantity: number of samples = 8 Description: FIDO and CTD rosette samples were collected at GME. |
| Trace metals | Quantity: number of samples = 8 Description: FIDO and CTD rosette samples were collected at GME. |
| Biology and fisheries | |
| Sediment traps | Quantity: number of recoveries = 2 Description: A tide gauge mooring and sediment trap mooring were successfully recovered, after being deployed by by Darwin. |
| Gear research | Quantity: number of cores = 1 Description: A box core sample was collected to test the box corer afetr the installation of new parts. |
