Following a week of ROV work, multibeam mapping and sampling along the Azores-Biscay Rise, RV Sarmiento de Gamboa has arrived in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria for a short port call, allowing a changeover of scientific team in preparation for Leg 1.
Despite some technical hiccups, the Leg 0 team are pleased with their week’s work, as Leg 0 leader Pedro Madureira explains: “During Leg 0 of the iMirabilis cruise we visited one of the seamounts of the Azores-Biscay Rise. The dive with the ROV Luso allowed the collection of important data and information as well as volcanic rock samples that will be further studied to constrain some of the magmatic processes involved on the formation of this important geomorphological structure in the North Atlantic. The collection of biological samples was not as successful since we lost some of the collected samples during the ROV ascent to surface. However, we expect that the annotation and analysis of more than 10 hours of high-resolution footages will contribute to better understand the benthic ecosystem hosted by this habitat. The work performed onboard by the Cabo Verde scientists from the NGO Projecto Vito and by the ornithologist Joan Carles Abella aims to also provide data on seabird ecology along the transit from Vigo to the Azores-Biscay Rise and from there to Las Palmas, in the Canarias.” Pedro and his colleagues reflect on Leg 0 successes and challenges in the video clip below.
Training and capacity building activities have featured strongly in Leg 0, and a regular blog from the ship has kept everyone back at home up to date with the expedition’s activities – this will continue throughout Leg 1, and we hope you will continue to follow progress.
RV Sarmiento de Gamboa now welcomes the Leg 1 participants on board, and will depart port later today to start a 3-day transit down to the Cabo Verde region, where ROV, AUV and lander work will keep the team very busy for the next 4 weeks. Just ahead of joining the ship, Leg 1 expedition leader Cova Orejas had the opportunity to explain to Euronews viewers what the next stage of the expedition is all about.
