HR: 1330h
AN: OS32A-0227 INVITED     [PDF]
TI: Submersible Research in Extreme Environments Using a Novel Light-Tethered Hybrid ROV
AU: * Bowen, A D
EM: abowen@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering Deep Submergence Laboratory MS 7, Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Fryer, P
EM: pfryer@hawaii.edu
AF: Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology University of Hawaii, 1680 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 06822 United States
AU: Shank, T
EM: tshank@whoi.edu
AF: Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Biology Department MS 33, Woods Hole, MA 02543 United States
AU: Edwards, M
EM: margo@soest.hawaii.edu
AF: Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology University of Hawaii, 1680 East-West Road, Honolulu, HI 06822 United States
AB: The Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle (HROV) will provide the U.S. oceanographic community with capable and cost-effective technology for routine access to the world's oceans to 11,000 meters. The hybrid vehicle design permits operation as an untethered, fully autonomous vehicle, and also as a self-powered ROV employing a 3mm diameter optical fiber tether for real-time telemetry of data and video to operators on a surface ship. Several environments that are currently inaccessible for detailed research have sufficiently mature and testable scientific problems that could be addressed using the HROV. The greatest depths on the surface of Earth are found in oceanic trenches. The complex effects of subduction of oceanic lithosphere beneath both continental and oceanic lithospheric plates are subjects of intense interest in the marine geological and geophysical community because they are prime areas where oceanic lithosphere is recycled back into the mantle. Recent studies of the Challenger Deep (CD) in the Mariana Trench show potential fluid conduits on the subducting plate that occur at depths greater than 10,000 m. The inner trench slope in the vicinity of the CD is a site where fluids derived from the down-going plate and talus from the overriding plate may be interacting. The processes of talus accumulation at this locality and the ultimate fate of the material may be critical to understanding the processes of tectonic erosion and of arc recycling in convergent plate margins. Also, the biology and microbiology of these sites is virtually unknown. The HROV will be ideally suited to conduct pioneering mapping and sampling of these seafloor environments. Over the past few decades, mid-ocean ridge studies have been enabled by deep submergence vehicle access and capabilities, and likewise, this branch of science has provided compelling need for the current family of synergistic deep submergence systems. With the recent identification and first-order mapping and dredging studies of ultra-slow spreading ridges in the Arctic, for instance, scientists are poised to make breakthroughs in our understanding of this important end-member of seafloor spreading environment. The ability to sample and observe detailed geological, biological and chemical processes occurring at these slowest spreading MORs will undoubtedly revolutionize our understanding of how seafloor spreading is manifested in these settings. In addition, we expect to find a host of novel biological communities and chemical-biochemical processes associated with recently discovered hydrothermal venting on Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Ocean as a consequence of tectonic isolation starting in the late Mesozoic. It was not until the middle Miocene that deep water communication was reestablished with the north Atlantic and not until 3Ma with the north Pacific . Currently, Iceland essentially blocks potential migrations from the mid-Atlantic ridge to the Gakkel ridge. The HROV will be highly applicable to operations under-ice, such as those that will be required for survey, close-up inspection, and sampling of sites on the ultra slow spreading Gakkel Ridge in the Arctic Basin.
DE: 9355 Pacific Ocean
SC: Ocean Sciences [OS]
MN: 2003 Fall Meeting