Ridge Crest News

The InterRidge Office has just received news that the world's most northerly black smoker hydrothermal vent field was discovered at 2400m in the North Atlantic at 73°N. The discovery occurred on July 12, 2008, during a cruise led by Rolf B. Pedersen, Professor of Geology and leader of the Centre for Geobiology at the University of Bergen, Norway. The cruise included PIs from Norway, Portugal, Switzerland, and USA.

A multi-disciplinary cruise aboard the R/V Revelle with ROV Jason II is underway at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge from 9 July - 8 August 2008. The cruise includes three science teams, led by scientists Anna-Louise Reysenbach, Jeff Seewald, and Bill Seyfried and Kang Ding from the USA. Participants also come from China, Portugal, Russia, and The Netherlands. They will study the geochemistry, geology, microbiology, and biology of the Rainbow, Lucky Strike, Lost City, and Snake Pit vent sites.
Tune into the cruise website for daily dispatches: http://www.deepseavoyage.research.pdx.edu/.

Daily dispatches are posted from 23 May to 28 June 2008 for Cruise JC24 of
RRS James Cook, at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, 45 degrees 30' N.
Log on to watch the action as the scientific team, led by Dr. Roger Searle
(Durham University, UK), uses the ROV Isis for a detailed study of the
geology and geochemistry of the axial volcanic ridge.
Website (aimed mainly at schools and the general public):
http://www.classroomatsea.net.

The InterRidge Office would like to highlight an Australian research cruise currently underway in the northern Lau Back-arc Basin (NLB). The SS07-2008 cruise, led by Chief Scientist Richard Arculus from Australian National University, will be in two legs from 30 April - 7 June 2008 on R/V Southern Surveyor. The objective of the first leg will be to survey the bathymetry, magnetic characteristics, petrology, hydrothermal activity, and hence origins and evolution of two of four spreading centers within this region (Northwest Lau [NWLSC] and Niuafo’ou [NSC]), which are essentially unstudied.