RAPID: Funds to Complete Seafloor CORK Instrument Sleds for Imminent Deployment

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The PI requests MRI funding to help complete the fabrication of 3 instrument sleds intended for deployment at North Pond in fall, 2011. The urgency necessitating a RAPID request is due to the lead time required to perform the work, thoroughly test the sleds and to correct/improve inevitable issues discovered during the prolonged testing phase. The PI?s feel that if they wait to restart the fabrication they jeopardize a unique opportunity to observe important changes in the basement environment following the installation of the three CORK observatories at North Pond, on the west flanks of the Mid Atlantic Ridge by IODP. The circulation of the hydrothermal fluids profoundly influences the chemical and physical evolution of the aging basement of the ocean ridge flanks and basins, and results in globally significant heat flux, chemical fluxes to the overlying ocean, and the dynamic microbiospere. The proposed project develops innovative, versatile instrumentation for studying this remote, extreme biosphere, providing robust sampling/ experimental opportunities with respect to providing access to pristine basement fluids.Broader Impacts: This project combines advanced technology development with exciting frontier science. Numerous graduate and undergraduate students with bee exposed to the whole development process as well as to the deployment and science output of the instrument sleds.