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
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