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.
July 8 - August 17, 201 | By Kelley Elliott, Brian Kennedy, Andrea Quattrini, Amanda Demopoulos, and Tim Shank
From July to August 2013, a team of scientists and technicians both at-sea and on shore will conduct exploratory investigations on the diversity and distribution of deep-sea habitats and marine life along the Northeast U.S. Canyons and at Mytilus Seamount, located within the U.S. Exclusive Economic Zone.
Read moreBy Amanda Demopoulos
Submarine canyons are found throughout the world, representing complex seafloor features that link the upper continental shelf to the abyssal plain. They punctuate the margin by incising the shelf, creating scenic seascapes reminiscent of their terrestrial counterparts.
Read moreBy Martha Nizinski
NOAA is the primary federal agency mandated to conserve and manage the nation’s marine resources, including ecosystems containing deep-sea corals and sponges. As our understanding of the special nature of deep-sea resources has grown, so has the need to prioritize research activities and management to ensure that sufficient action is taken to conserve these resources for future generations.
Read moreBy Jason Chaytor, Uri ten Brink, and Daniel Brothers
Since 2006, the U.S. Geological Survey, with support from the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, has been working to understand the potential causes and consequences of tsunamis along the U.S. east coast and their probability of occurrence. The primary focus of this work has been to identify and characterize submarine landslides present along the continental slope between Maine and Florida and subsequently evaluate the role of these submarine landslides in tsunami generation.
Read moreBy Taylor Heyl
Canyons along the continental shelf and slope off the northeastern U.S. remain little explored but the topography, currents, and sedimentation in and around these submarine canyons support complex systems including chemosynthetic ecosystems in the form of cold seeps. Cold seeps are patchily distributed, ephemeral environments that occur most frequently along tectonically active and passive continental margins from intertidal to hadal depths, in areas of the seafloor where hydrogen sulfide, methane, highly saline water, and other hydrocarbon-rich fluids escape into the water column.
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