Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/J006149/1
Cruise support for Dr Christopher Smith-Duque, shipboard petrologist on IODP Expedition 329
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Professor DAH Teagle, University of Southampton, Sch of Ocean and Earth Science
- Grant held at:
- University of Southampton, Sch of Ocean and Earth Science
- Science Area:
- Earth
- Marine
- Overall Classification:
- Earth
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Natural Resource Management
- Science Topics:
- Biogeochemical Cycles
- Ecosystem Scale Processes
- Hydrogeology
- Tectonic Processes
- Volcanic Processes
- Abstract:
- The world's oceans and the seafloor are the most poorly explored regions of Earth. Despite covering over 70% of the Earth's surface, only a few hundred drilled holes and dredge sites currently represent the entirety of our sampling of the sub-seafloor. More so than any other region on Earth there remains a dearth of sampling in the South Pacific Gyre, the world's largest ocean current system. The last scientific expedition to systematically recover material from the ocean floor in this region of the South Pacific Ocean was over 130 years ago during the HMS Challenger Expedition (1872-1876). Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 329 represents a unique opportunity to discover the nature and extent of life below the seafloor and to understand the geological processes that have operated for over 100 million years in one of the largest, most poorly explored regions of the Earth. The JOIDES Resolution's transect, will cover 11,000 km of ocean over a period of 66 days from Papeete, Tahiti to Auckland, New Zealand and will collect sediment cores from 7 sites and drill into the basalts of the oceanic crust at 3. Aboard ship, I will be part of an international team of scientists using a multi-disciplinary approach to characterise the geological and biological nature of seafloor sediments and the underlying volcanic rocks that formed at the East Pacific Rise mid-ocean ridges. The South Pacific Gyre is of particular interest because this has been a region of extremely low biological activity within the oceans for many millions of years. IODP Expedition 329 will determine: 1) What, if any, life occurs beneath the sea floor within the gyre and in what habitats and conditions does life occur; 2) The role the ocean plays in controlling habitats beneath the seafloor across a transect from the centre to the edge of the gyre. For example, how does the accumulation of dead biomass from near the surface affect life in the ocean floor; 3) The extent of life within sea floor sediment and basement that is independent of the photosynthetic process, and 4) How the geology of sub-seafloor rocks, and the evolving thermally driven seawater/rock chemical interactions affect the habitability of the seafloor and distribution of life. My role as the sole petrologist sailing on Expedition 329 will be to describe and characterise the volcanic rocks that occur beneath the sediments. These basaltic lavas formed during eruptions of magma at the southern East Pacific Rise, the mid-ocean ridges that has formed much of the Pacific Ocean basement. These lavas have since cooled and the sites moved over millions of years away from the active ridge to their present locations. Describing and analysing the rocks during Expedition 329 will allow me to infer the styles of lava eruptions and classify the rock types. My role will also include describing and interpreting how seawater interacts with oceanic basement and the conditions of seawater-basalt thermal and chemical exchange. New minerals are formed by thermally driven chemical process known as hydrothermal alteration that exchanges elements and compounds between seawater and rock. These new minerals form in voids between fragments of rock, in cooling fractures and within bubbles known as vesicles that were once occupied by gases escaping from the magmas during eruption. Volcanic glass formed by the very rapid quenching of magma by seawater can also be replaced as can the igneous minerals that were formed during the slower cooling of the lava. Many of the reactions between seawater and basalts release chemicals and energy that create potential habitats for primitive microbial sub-seafloor life. Describing these alteration features will be imperative for understanding the biological colonization and potential extent of life within oceanic basement.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/J006149/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Directed (Research Programmes)
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- UK IODP
This grant award has a total value of £6,678
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Indirect - Indirect Costs | DA - Investigators | DA - Estate Costs | DI - Staff |
|---|---|---|---|
| £18 | £41 | £9 | £6,611 |
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