The initial rapid response cruise (NOAA Ship McArthur) has now returned to Seattle after successfully locating a large event plume ('megaplume') near 42 40'N, 126 47'W over the Gorda Ridge. See the PMEL-NOAA WWW page for details of the seismic event and the initial response cruise results (http://www.pmel.noaa.gov/vents/eruption.html or via a link from the RIDGE Homepage at http://ridge.unh.edu). Seismic activity continues and has, in fact, been reinvigorated as of Friday, March 15, 1996.
Follow-up expeditions to the Gorda Ridge are highly desirous to investigate the many unanswered questions regarding the Gorda Ridge event in particular, as well as MOR 'events' generally: spatial and temporal patterns of seismicity; intrusive vs extrusive behavior; the origin of the event plumes; and patterns and rates of geochemical and microbiological processes associated with event plumes and resulting chronic plumes.
NSF has agreed to provide funding for a second response cruise on the UNOLS ship, RV Wecoma, out of Newport, Oregon, to the Gorda Ridge during the first two weeks of April, 1996 (currently scheduled for April 6-16). The focus of this cruise will be water column work and camera tows. Available NSF funding is limited as their 1996 budget has still not been approved. One proposal is being prepared by J. Cowen (UH), M. Lilley (UW), and R. Collier (OSU) to revisit the Gorda Ridge during this time. The cruise will be a collaboration between university and PMEL-NOAA scientists. Ed Baker's group (PMEL) will provide CTD-rosette and specific software support for location and mapping of hydrothermal plumes, Bob Embley (PMEL) will lead a bottom imaging effort designed primarily to localize and map seafloor venting, recent fracturing, and recent eruption products, Lilley and J. Lupton (PMEL) will study gas chemistry, Cowen, J. Baross (UH), and Lilley will study microbial activities and community structure and Lilley, Collier, G. Massoth (PMEL), Feely (PMEL), and J. Resing (UH) will measure plume inorganic chemistry. Although space is limited, this group would make every effort to accommodate the sampling needs of other investigators. The most important criteria for inclusion in this rapid response effort will be hypothesis-driven experiments and/or sampling that relate to time-dependent processes with a rapid decay function. Interested parties should send an e-mail message as soon as possible to one of the following:
Jim Cowen jcowen@soest.hawaii.edu
Marv Lilley lilley@u.washington.edu
Bob Collier rcollier@oce.orst.edu.