NOAA, Ocean Explorer | INSPIRE: Chile Margin 2010

Mission Summary

The Chilean Triple Junction presented many challenges during this first bout of its exploration. We found chemosynthetic fauna and many areas with methane.

April 12 Log: Puerto Caldera, Costa Rica

One may ask why there is a daily update based in Costa Rica about a cruise off of Chile.

March 14 Log: Trench Work

We have come to the end of the cruise and to our final sampling destination, the Peru-Chile Trench. Trenches are the deepest areas in the ocean.

March 13 Log: Scavengers at Sea

I’ve seen nothing stranger than the primitive nature coming out in these excited biologists. They remind me of vultures swooping in to scavenge up whatever they can get their excited little hands on.

March 12 Log: Broken Multicore x 4

It has been days since the multicore has been recovered with any workable samples in it, and the scientists are growing restless.

March 9 Log: Marine Science in Chile Shaken

The conduct of oceanography depends on access to research ships and field stations. The Chile quake has dealt a serious blow to both.

March 8 Log: Ensalada Pepino

Today began a new part of our adventure. We arrived at the Concepcion Methane Seep Area (CMSA) this morning and immediately prepared for sampling with the video-guided multicore.

March 8 Log: Science's Gunslingers

Death, like formaldehyde, is a part of science. It also stinks.

March 7 Log: Post-Triple Junction Blues

Today we’ve been travelling north taking time out for reflection and recuperation. Heading into the lab I found a throng of happy (but exhausted) biologists.

March 6 Log: Requiem Explorator

In oceanography, if your number of recoveries is equal to your number of deployments, you are having a good day. The ABE team had a bad day yesterday.

March 6 Log: Harold Tours the Melville

Hello out there - Harold (the adventure monkey) here. I am Monica’ s travel companion. I have been pretty bored sitting in my bunk, so I decided to take a trip around the ship and see what has been going on.

March 5 Log: "What Goes Up Must Come Down"

... but the corollary is not true.

March 5 Log: Wanna Get Some Mud!

Day 7 of our cruise was a day of fast decision-making based on data recovered - in other words, science at sea!

March 4 Log: Location, Location, Location

The diversity of science and degree of scientific collaboration happening here on the Meville is just another thing that makes the INSPIRE cruise special.

March 3 Log: Earthquake Relevance

Today we are mapping and sampling offshore along the Chile margin, a few hundred miles south of where the recent earthquake occurred.

March 2 Log: Close But No Cigar

I awoke this morning expecting our sixth day at sea to begin with our second multi-core. However, our plans had changed while I was sleeping.

March 1 Log: Plumes... Where Did They Go?

There is a great deal of information that can be attained from deep-sea mud. Eight mud cores are split among the science party.

February 28 Log: 2600m Below the Tsunami

A magnitude 8.8 earthquake shook Santiago early Saturday morning. We were miles off shore running operations on the sea floor with the multicore.

February 27 Log: Radioactive Women from Santa Barbara

This is day three on board the R/V Melville and things are starting to come together. The big science news of the day is we have begun to do tow-yos.

February 26 Log: Gumby Goes to Sea

Preparation for science is officially underway. Today we continued setting up our equipment on the ship.

February 25 Log: Bubble Boy

It is amazing to watch 38 scientists unpacking. We are embarking on a cruise that was first discussed in 2002.

Biodiversity of the Deep, Reducing and Chile Margins

The deep sea is cold, dark, and inhospitable to man yet holds untold and unknown biodiversity.

Methane in the Ocean

Methane (CH4) (figure 1) is the simplest hydrocarbon, and is the primary component of the natural gas that we burn for energy.

Sea Floor Habitats of the Chile Margin

Chile’s diversity of deep-sea habitats makes it an exciting region for study. Much remains to be learned about what species live on the Chile margin.

Geology of the Chile Margin and Triple Junction

The Chile Margin, composed of submerged continental shelf extending from the west coast of Chile into the Pacific Ocean, is as geologically diverse as it is long.

Deep, Dark and Ready for Exploration

Ocean Exploration is a very new field of science – and it is a field that is changing how we understand the way the Earth works all the time.

Expedition Education Module

Ocean Explorer Expedition Education Modules (EEM) are designed to reach out in new ways to teachers, students, and the general public, and share the excitement of daily at-sea discoveries and the science behind NOAA’s major ocean exploration initiatives with the people around the world.

Mission Plan

With a coastline stretching more than 4,300 km (>2,700 miles), the geology and biology of Chile provides an incredible natural laboratory to study how life on our earth functions and has evolved.

Explorers

View photos and and short bios of the explorers participating on the INSPIRE: Chile Margin 2010 exploration.