Collaborative Research: Collection of Marine Geophysical Data on Transits of the Nathaniel B. Palmer

该项目将利用R/VIB纳撒尼尔·B·帕尔默的过境巡航收集关于南大洋机会目标的海洋地球物理数据。由于帕尔默一般只穿越地球物理仪器测量的稀少区域，该项目代表了一种收集重要新数据的经济高效的方式。这项工作的重点是扩大我们对南极及周边板块板块运动史的了解。最终目标是改善全球板块重建，并获得对一般板块运动学和动力学以及岩石圈流变学的新见解。只需要稍微偏离直线航线，我们预计在该项目的三年内每年运营一次邮轮。第一艘从新西兰到智利的邮轮将沿着梅纳德断裂带调查太平洋-南极板块运动的流线，该断裂带横跨S纬度约50度的东太平洋隆起。将收集条带测深、重力、磁学和少量地震反射剖面图，以确定断裂带的准确轨迹及其与船上和卫星雷达测高数据中看到的相关重力异常的关系。这些观测对于精确的板块重建至关重要，并将提供太平洋-南极边界北端附近的主要断裂带的GPS导航位置。这些数据将与板块边界西南端皮特曼断裂带的类似数据和梅纳德断裂带附近以前巡航的磁异常结合起来使用，以改进高精度的板块重建，并评估太平洋和南极板块的内部变形极限。一旦确定了运输时间表，未来几年的科学邮轮计划将被设计出来。在更广泛的影响方面，我们计划在两次航行中向研究生和本科生教授船上的海洋地球物理课程。这门课包括每天关于仪器和数据的课堂讲座；每天几个小时的站立和数据处理；以及每个学生在一个独立研究项目中的工作。我们预计每班可容纳15名学生，其中包括主要来自少数民族入学率较高的本科院校的学员。

This project will utilize the R/VIB Nathaniel B. Palmer's transit cruises to collect marine geophysical data on targets-of-opportunity in the southern oceans. Because the Palmer generally traverses regions only sparsely surveyed with geophysical instruments, this project represents a cost-effective way to collect important new data. The work's focus is expanding our knowledge of plate motion histories for the Antarctic and surrounding plates. The ultimate goals are improving global plate reconstructions and gaining new insight into general plate kinematics and dynamics and lithospheric rheology. Only slight deviations from the straight routes are required, and we expect to operate on one cruise per year over the three years of the project. The first cruise from New Zealand to Chile will survey a flow line of Pacific-Antarctic plate motion along the Menard fracture zone, which crosses the East Pacific Rise at ~50 S latitude. Swath bathymetry, gravity, magnetics, and a small amount of seismic reflection profiling will be collected to determine the exact trace of the fracture zone and its relationship to the associated gravity anomaly seen in shipboard and satellite radar altimetry data. These observations are critical for precise plate reconstructions, and will provide GPS-navigated locations of a major fracture zone near the northern end of the Pacific-Antarctic boundary. These data will be used in combination with similar data from the Pitman fracture zone at the southwestern end of the plate boundary and magnetic anomalies from previous cruises near the Menard fracture zone to improve high-precision plate reconstructions and evaluate the limits of internal deformation of the Pacific and Antarctic plates. The science plan for cruises in following years will be designed once transit schedules are set. In terms of broader impacts, we plan to teach an on-board marine geophysics class to graduate and undergraduate students on two cruises. The class consists of daily classroom lectures about the instruments and data; several hours per day of watch standing and data processing; and work by each student on an independent research project. We expect to accommodate 15 students per class, including participants from primarily undergraduate institutions with high minority enrollments.