Expedition Overview

Sampling Cruise to the Incipient Rift at 2°N near the East Pacific Rise
Principal Investigators:
Emily Klein, Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, Duke University
Debbie Smith, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

During our cruise on the R/V Melville (Aug. 5- Sept. 2, 2002), we will map (using wide-beam echo-sounding and camera tows) and sample (using dredges and wax cores) the Incipient Rift in the equatorial Pacific Ocean The primary goal of the cruise is to use magmatism of the Incipient Rift to explore the chemical systematics produced within the melting regime of the East Pacific Rise as a function of distance from the axis. The secondary goal of the cruise is to perform reconnaissance camera work both on the slopes bounding the Incipient Rift in order to determine whether they expose deeper crustal lithologies and to guide the sampling efforts by determining the distribution of magmatism within the Incipient Rift and its linking ridge to the adjacent East Pacific Rise