Synoptic Fine-Scale Survey of the Seafloor

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9504830 de Moustier The Scripps Institution of Oceanography will will undertake an instrument develoipment project to build a multi-sensor, digital Deep Tow vehicle capable of fine-scale multibeam swath mapping and acoustic backscatter imaging near the seafloor to a 6000 meter depth. The system will be configured to operate with either coaxial or fiber-optic tow cables and be capable of deploying sensor packages as science requirements dictate. The plan is to integrate a pair of 110 kHz side-looking sonars, a 4 kHz sub-bottom profiler, a 40 kHz obstacle avoidance sonar, a 12 kHz navigation sonar, a 23.5 kHz up-looking sonar, a CTD, a transmissometer, a magnetometer and a complement of still and TV cameras onto an existing towed vehicle). This high resolution tool will be used to study geological seafloor phenomena such as crustal accretion processes, small-scale abyssal sediment processes (sediment wave amplitude, asymmetry, wavelength and orientation), scale dependence of seafloor topography, and seafloor acoustic backscattering. Ultimately, the data will provide a base for better understanding the relationship between the magmatic and tectonic processes that control the ridge system and hydrothermal venting.