By John Mitchell, Voyage Leader
One of the many heavily eroded bergs seen in the northern Ross Sea (Photo: John Mitchell).
We’ve spent the last two days sampling the Admiralty Seamount which has a large (12 x 5 nautical miles) flat top at about 460 m deep, and very steep flanks dropping to over 3000 m. The sampling has shown the top to be rather sparse biologically, apart from a couple of small areas which have an abundant and diverse fauna. Further sampling of those areas will be done later in the week. Although we are north of the pack-ice and access to this seamount is generally good, numerous tabular bergs in various stages of disintegration surround us.
Location diagram showing the position of Admiralty Seamount relative to Balleny Islands, Scott Island and the Antarctic continent (Image: Arne Pallentin).
We’ve also started sampling at our last abyssal station in a water depth of 3500 m just northeast of the Admiralty seamount. The immediately obvious difference between this abyssal station and those sampled to the east, is the smaller number of glacial erratics and drop stones found here. As we explained in earlier reports, these are stones plucked by glaciers, carried out to sea on icebergs, and dropped to the seafloor when the icebergs melt.
Seabed image at the abyssal station showing a muddy substrate with numerous animal tracks, burrows, a sea cucumber and absence of drop stones (Photo: DTIS).
Eight tubes of mud collected by the multicorer on the abyssal station awaiting analysis (Photo: John Mitchell).
See the Science Report on CAML-Cousteau Expedition tracking page
From February until mid-March 2008, New Zealand scientists are embarking on an eight-week voyage to the Ross Sea to survey the marine environment and explore the variety of life forms (biodiversity) in the region. This is part of the Census of Antarctic Marine Life and scientists on board will also contribute to the NZ Science Learning Hub for teachers and students. Follow all CAML expeditions routes on the CAML-Cousteau Expedition tracking page.