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RRS James Cook JC010_1 (JC10)
Cruise summary report
Cruise Info. | |
Ship name (ship code) | RRS James Cook (740H) |
Cruise identifier | JC010_1 (JC10) |
Cruise period | 2007-05-13 — 2007-06-02 |
Status | Completed |
Port of departure | Vigo, Spain |
Port of return | Cadiz, Spain |
Purpose | Research |
Objectives | The major objective of RRS James Cook 10 was to increase our understanding of how seafloor environmental variables affect the biodiversity, structure, function and dynamics of faunal communities in two specific 'biological hotspot' environments, mud volcanoes and submarine canyons, on the NE Atlantic continental slope. The cruise was jointly supported by OCEANS 2025 (Theme 5) and the EU Hotspot Environment Research on the Margins of European Seas (HERMES) project.
The cruise comprises three legs, of which this is the first. The objective of this leg was to improve understanding of the processes involved in transporting organic-rich fluids from the geosphere into the biosphere. To achieve this goal, a series of ROV dives investigating mud volcanoes in the Gulf of Cadiz, addressing the following scientific questions: 1) What are the rates of fluid venting and what is the source of the fluids? 2) What is the composition of cold-seep communities associated with the mud volcanoes and how do these compare to cold-seep communities from other areas in the Atlantic and elsewhere? 3) What is the total contribution of mud volcanoes to the carbon cycle in the Gulf of Cadiz? 4) Does the new NOC methane sensors produce good results at a range of water depths? |
Chief scientist | Philip P E Weaver (National Oceanography Centre, Southampton) |
Project | HERMES |
Coordinating body | NOCS |
Cruise report | (4.15 MB) |
Ocean/sea areas | |
General | North East Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W) |
Specific | Gulf of Cadiz |
Track charts | (0.20 MB) |
Measurements | |
Chemical oceanography | |
Oxygen | Quantity: number of samples = 89 Description: Aquamonitor water samples collected at depth for later analysis of oxygen, nutrients, ICP spectrometer measurements and methane |
Other dissolved gases | Quantity: number of samples = 89 Description: Aquamonitor water samples collected at depth for later analysis of oxygen, nutrients, ICP spectrometer measurements and methane |
Other chemical oceanographic measurements | Quantity: number of samples = 89 Description: Aquamonitor water samples collected at depth for later analysis of oxygen, nutrients, ICP spectrometer measurements and methane |
Biology and fisheries | |
Other biological/fisheries measurement | Quantity: number of samples = 18 Description: biological: 2 colonisation, 6 scoop, 4 suction and 6 claw samples |
Geology and geophysics | |
Core - soft bottom | Quantity: number of cores = 99 Description: 12 piston cores, 14 megacores, 19 gravity cores, 1 K core and 53 push cores |
In-situ seafloor measurement/sampling | Quantity: number of surveys = 21 Description: ISIS ROV dives to investigate mud volcanoes in the Gulf of Cadiz, swath bathymetry |
Other geological/geophysical measurements | Quantity: number of samples = 36 Description: Heatflow |
Other geological/geophysical measurements | Quantity: number of samples = 16 Description: Rock |
Data held at BODC | |
Discrete samples | |
8 Gravity Corer | |
12 Piston corer | Nitrogen concentrations in suspended particulate material Carbon concentrations in sediment |