SGER: High Resolution Seafloor Water Column Mapping With an AUV: ABE Surveys to Define Cable Route Selection and Science Node Access Routes on the Northern Juan de Fuca Ridge

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(Yoerger Proposal 0549580)The Canadian Foundation for Innovation (CFI) announced an award of Can$ 62.4 M to the NEPTUNE-Canada Consortium (NCC) led by University of Victoria (U Vic) in October 2003. The award called for the northern portion of the Juan De Fuca Plate to be outfitted with a network of submarine electro-optical cables to serve a set of scientific primary and secondary nodes. These nodes will provide a unique electrical power and bandwidth infrastructure to the open ocean environment (seafloor, sub seafloor and overlying ocean) for the pursuit of next generation science inquiries into the dynamic behavior of all systems of interest. The PIs propose to complete the route surveys for laying of the Neptune cable. The laying of this cable will be especially challenging because one of the primary target areas for science node emplacement is a volcanically active submarine spreading center that will be the focus of the research empowered by the cabled observatory node. This will be the first ever deployment of such a system and it is crucial that the best possible information be obtained to confidently lay the main cable to the primary node site and secondary cables to outlier instruments like seismometers.Opportunities and IssuesIn September of 2005, the UW Hydrothermal Research Group (Delaney and Kelley, PI's) will be conducting a multiply-funded, 34-day research cruise in the volcanically active area selected by NEPTUNE Canada as a high priority node location of the Stage 1 Regional Cable Observatory (RCO) Implementation effort. The Endeavour Segment of the Juan de Fuca Ridge is the locus of considerable interest for many scientific groups including the NSF RIDGE2K Program, the Keck Foundation Research effort of the UW Group, and the Canadian NEPTUNE Planning efforts. But the active ridge-crest represents a uniquely hazardous environment for cable laying. As part of the research effort this September, the R/V T. G. Thompson will be deployed to the area for more than a month with the ROV Jason on board as the principal deep submergence asset. With the appropriate support, the Autonomous Benthic Explorer (ABE), a proven, programmable, untethered deep-sea mapping vehicle could be used on board in parallel operations with Jason so that the two assets operate in a mostly simultaneous mode to accomplish both the scheduled science activities and the requisite cable survey.Broader Impacts:This work is taking advantage of a unique opportunity to complete the seafloor mapping required prior to the laying of the NEPTUNE cable at Endeavour Ridge. This seafloor observing site will enable real-time data streams and interactive experiments to be placed in one of the most biologically and geologically important sites in the ocean. The cruise on which this mapping will occur is the target of intense public outreach and as such, the data collection and ABE itself will enable the details of this important section of ocean floor to be seen by many.