Our Deepwater Backyard: Exploring Atlantic Canyons and Seamounts 2014

Background Information

The essays below will help you to understand the goals and objectives of the mission and provide additional context and information about the places being explored and the science, tools, and technologies being used.

  • Mission Introduction

    By Brian Kennedy

    Mission Introduction

    From August through October 2014, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer will explore the largely unknown deep-sea ecosystems of the U.S. Atlantic coast. Our at-sea and shore-based science team will collect baseline data in the Atlantic submarine canyons and along the New England Seamount Chain.

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  • Mission Plan

    By Brian Kennedy

    Mission Plan

    Close to one of the most urban areas in the U.S. lie diverse deep-sea environments home to deep-sea corals, chemosynthetic communities, and unique geological features. Much of this area—including numerous submarine canyons and the New England Seamount Chain—is unknown and has never been seen by humans.

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  • Leg 1: Shakedown and Mapping New England Seamounts

    By Derek Sowers

    Deep-Sea Corals: A Primer

    From August 9-August 30, 2014, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer conducted a 22-day expedition in the North Atlantic in Veatch Canyon and along the New England Seamount chain.

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  • Exploring Our Deepwater Backyard

    By Scott France

    Exploring Our Deepwater Backyard

    More than 200 years after the Lewis and Clark Expedition, a new frontier beckons - this one eastward from the U.S. Atlantic coastline. Deep below the smooth surface of the ocean hides a complex and dramatic topography, a still largely unexplored, underwater landscape as stunning as that seen by Lewis and Clark in the west.

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  • Clues to a Marine Geologic Puzzle

    By Susan Schnur

    Clues to a Marine Geologic Puzzle

    Geologists are scientific storytellers. They study the history of rocks in order to tell evidence-based stories about how the Earth formed in the past, how it is evolving now, and what it might look like in the future. To reconstruct geologic history, we need to measure time, or at least be able to put geologic events in chronological order.

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