Dana Yoerger

• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution

Systematic surveys of the distribution of epibenthic megafaunal species relative to one another and to environmental variables in the deep sea can lead to inferences and testable hypotheses regarding factors that influence their distributions. Here we use a seascape approach to provide insight into the character and spatial extent of the influence...

The ocean’s vast twilight, or mesopelagic, zone (200–1,000 m depth) harbors immense biomass consisting of myriad poorly known and unique animal species whose quantity and diversity are likely considerably underestimated. As they facilitate the movement of carbon from surface waters to the deep sea through feeding and migratory behaviors, ocean twil...

Metabarcoding analysis of environmental DNA samples is a promising new tool for marine biodiversity and conservation. Typically, seawater samples are obtained using Niskin bottles and filtered to collect eDNA. However, standard sample volumes are small relative to the scale of the environment, conventional collection strategies are limited, and the...

Metabarcoding analysis of environmental DNA samples is a promising new tool for marine biodiversity and conservation. Typically, seawater samples are obtained using Niskin bottles and filtered to collect eDNA. However, standard sample volumes are small relative to the scale of the environment, conventional collection strategies are limited, and the...

Mesobot , an autonomous underwater vehicle, addresses specific unmet needs for observing and sampling a variety of phenomena in the ocean’s midwaters. The midwater hosts a vast biomass, has a role in regulating climate, and may soon be exploited commercially, yet our scientific understanding of it is incomplete. Mesobot has the ability to survey an...

ABSTRACT: Industrial-scale dumping of organic waste to the deep ocean was once common practice, leaving a legacy of chemical pollution for which a paucity of information exists. Using a nested approach with autonomous and remotely operated underwater vehicles, a dumpsite offshore California was surveyed and sampled. Discarded waste containers litte...

Industrial-scale dumping of organic waste to the deep ocean was once common practice, leaving a legacy of chemical pollution for which a paucity of information exists. Using a nested approach with autonomous and remotely operated underwater vehicles, a dumpsite offshore California was surveyed and sampled. Discarded waste containers littered the si...

The 2012 submarine eruption of Havre volcano in the Kermadec arc, New Zealand, is the largest deep-ocean eruption in history and one of very few recorded submarine eruptions involving rhyolite magma. It was recognized from a gigantic 400-km² pumice raft seen in satellite imagery, but the complexity of this event was concealed beneath the sea surfac...

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) Sentry has been in routine operation since 2009. It is a 6000m depth rated autonomous survey and sampling platform and is a “fly-away” system meaning it transports easily anywhere in the world to utilize vessels of opportunity. Sentry, initially a radical concept and experiment in AUV design, is now the AUV c...

Benthic accumulations of filamentous, mat-forming bacteria occur throughout the oceans where bisulfide mingles with oxygen or nitrate, providing key but poorly quantified linkages between elemental cycles of carbon, nitrogen and sulfur. Here we used the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry to conduct a contiguous, 12.5 km photo-imaging survey of se...

North Su is a double-peaked active andesite submarine volcano located in the eastern Manus Basin of the Bismarck Sea that reaches a depth of 1154 m. It hosts a vigorous and varied hydrothermal system with black and white smoker vents along with several areas of diffuse venting and deposits of native sulfur. Geologic mapping based on ROV observation...

This chapter deals with modeling and control of underwater robots. First, a brief introduction showing the constantly expanding role of marine robotics in oceanic engineering is given; this section also contains some historical backgrounds. Most of the following sections strongly overlap with the corresponding chapters presented in this handbook; h...

Oceanic fronts, similar to atmospheric fronts, occur at the interface of two fluid (water) masses of varying characteristics. In regions such as these where there are quantifiable physical, chemical, or biological changes in the ocean environment, it is possible - with the proper instrumentation - to track, or map, the front boundary. In this paper...

This paper reports the development of a new underwater robotic vehicle, Nereid-UI, with the goal of being capable of deployments in polar ocean regions traditionally considered difficult or impossible to access such the ice-ocean interface in marginal ice zones, in the water column of ice-covered seas, and the seas underlying ice shelves. The vehic...

This study presents a systematic analysis and interpretation of autonomous underwater vehicle-based microbathymetry combined with remotely operated vehicle (ROV) video recordings, rock analyses and temperaturemeasurements within the PACManus hydrothermal area located on Pual Ridge in the Bismarck Sea of eastern Manus Basin. The data obtained during...

Submarine mud volcanoes are important sources of methane to the water column. However, the temporal variability of their mud and methane emissions is unknown. Methane emissions were previously proposed to result from a dynamic equilibrium between upward migration and consumption at the seabed by methane-consuming microbes. Here we show non-steady-s...

A multifaceted study of the slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) at 16.5?N provides new insights into detachment faulting and its evolution through time. The survey included regional multibeam bathymetry mapping, high-resolution mapping using AUV Sentry, seafloor imaging using the TowCam system, and an extensive rock-dredging program. At differe...

Long-lived detachment faults play an important role in the construction of new oceanic crust at slow-spreading mid-oceanic ridges. Although the corrugated surfaces of exposed low-angle faults demonstrate past slip, it is difficult to determine whether a given fault is currently active. If inactive, it is unclear when slip ceased. This judgment is c...

This study presents a systematic analysis and interpretation of autonomous underwater vehicle-based microbathymetry combined with remotely operated vehicle (ROV) video recordings, rock analyses and temperature measurements within the PACManus hydrothermal area located on Pual Ridge in the Bismarck Sea of eastern Manus Basin. The data obtained durin...

Significance The Deepwater Horizon blowout released more oil and gas into the deep sea than any previous spill. Soon after the well was capped, a deep-sea community 13 km southwest of the wellhead was discovered with corals that had been damaged by the spill. Here we show this was not an isolated incident; at least two other coral communities were...

Submarine mud volcanoes are considered an important source of methane to the water column. However, the temporal variability of their fluid transport including mud and methane emissions is largely unknown. Assuming that this transport was continuous and at steady state, methane emissions were previously proposed to result from a dynamic equilibrium...

Relationships among seep community biomass, diversity, and physiographic controls such as underlying geology are not well understood. Previous efforts to constrain these relationships at the Blake Ridge Diapir were limited to observations from piloted deep-submergence vehicles. In August 2012, the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) Sentry collecte...

We present the first evidence for widespread seabed methane venting along the southeastern United States Atlantic margin beyond the well-known Blake Ridge diapir seep. Recent ship- and autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV)-collected data resolve multiple water-column anomalies (>1000 m height) and extensive new chemosynthetic seep communities at the...

We investigated the effect of autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) dynamics and navigation on underway submarine gravimetry. Our research was motivated by the need to obtain spatially dense marine gravity measurements close to the source of subkilometer-scale geologic features in the shallow oceanic crust. Such measurements have been previously obta...

We describe a new underwater vehicle for under-ice telepresence, NereidUI (Under Ice). This paper discusses potential applications, environmental and logistical constraints, and progress to date. Based on lightdata-only fiber tether technology, Nereid UI will provide operatorswith a capability to teleoperate a ~1000 kg remotely operated vehicle (RO...

We describe and apply a new inversion method for 3-D modeling of magnetic anomalies designed for general application but which is particularly useful for the interpretation of near-seafloor magnetic anomalies. The crust subsurface is modeled by a set of prismatic cells, each with uniform magnetization, that together reproduce the observed magnetic...

During a July, 2012 expedition to the Hatteras Transverse Canyon, Blake Ridge, and Cape Fear Diapir, the AUV Sentry, aboard the NOAA Ship Okeanos, conducted experiments into remote operation of an AUV via satellite link. Remote launch, remote engineering, remote data processing and remote watch standing were all explored with varying degrees of suc...

Legal equality safeguards deliberative process while improving transparency in scientific research.

We outline a vision for persistent and/or long-range seafloor exploration and monitoring utilizing autonomous surface vessels (ASVs) and autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to conduct coordinated autonomous surveys. Three types of surveys are envisioned: a) Autonomous tending of deep-diving AUVs: deployed from a research vessel, the ASV would act...

We report a comparative performance evaluation, using at-sea field data, of recently reported methods for the problem of in-situ calibration of the alignment rotation matrix between Doppler sonar velocity sensors and inertial navigation sensors arising in the navigation of underwater vehicles. Most previously reported solutions to this alignment ca...

The Håkon Mosby Mud Volcano (72°N, 14° 43' E, 1250 m water depth) was studied for a period of a year by the Long-term Observatory On Mud-volcano Eruptions (LOOME) in 2009-2010, to investigate temporal variations of mud volcanism and consequences for biogeochemical processes. The HMMV is a highly active methane cold seep ecosystem characterized by h...

The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has been awarded funds by the National Science Foundation to develop a tethered robotic underwater vehicle for under-ice exploration by 2014. By employing a novel light-weight tether for data-only communications, the vehicle will provide the U.S. Polar Research Community with a capability to tele-operate, un...

The ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge is a major tectonic province, representing one of the important end-member mid-ocean-ridge types for its very slow and oblique spreading, and providing the only known route for migration of chemosynthetic deep-sea vent fauna between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. We report the investigation of the fir...

Hydrothermal alteration may drastically reduce the magnetic signature of host volcanic rocks. Magnetic data can thus provide important information about the geometry of hydrothermal systems. In order to map with accurate resolution the geometry and the structural control of the hydrothermal fields at submarine volcanoes, near-bottom high-resolution...

Seafloor mapping in the deep ocean has benefitted greatly from the advent and now routine use of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) to collect areally extensive near-bottom bathymetric, photographic, hydrographic, and magnetic data. For geologic investigations, AUV-derived data is often supplemented by near-bottom sidescan sonar backscatter data...

AUV-based microbathymetry combined with ROV video data was used to create the first high-resolution geologic maps of two hydrothermal active areas in the eastern Manus Basin: North Su volcano and PACManus hydrothermal field on Pual Ridge. The data were recorded in 2006 and 2011 during the research cruises Magellan-06 operated by the Woods Hole Ocea...

The slow-spreading Mid-Atlantic Ridges hosts a multitude of different types of hydrothermal systems. Here, we compare the fluxes and the plume dispersal at three high temperature sites located in very diverse settings at comparable depths (~3000m): The recently discovered sites Turtle Pits, and Nibelungen on the southern MAR, and the Logatchev fiel...

In this paper we address the problem of autonomously localizing multiple gas/odor sources in an indoor environment without a strong airflow. To do this, a robot iteratively creates an occupancy grid map. The produced map shows the probability each discrete cell contains a source. Our approach is based on a recent adaptation (Jakuba, 2007) [16] to t...

On May 31, 2010, a direct acoustic measurement method was used to quantify fluid leakage rate from the Deepwater Horizon Macondo well prior to removal of its broken riser. This method utilized an acoustic imaging sonar and acoustic Doppler sonar operating onboard a remotely operated vehicle for noncontact measurement of flow cross-section and veloc...

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are com- monly used to support oceanographic science by providing water-column mapping, seafloor bathymetric and photographic survey, and deep-sea exploration capabilities. In practice, the mapping activities carried out by AUVs consist of flying either pre-programmed tracklines (most propeller-driven AUVs), or...

This paper reports the Sentry autonomous underwater vehicle and its deployment on two cruises in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The first cruise, in June 2010, coupled Sentry with the TETHYS mass spectrometer to track and localize a subsea hydrocarbon plume at a depth of approximately 1100m going at least 30km from the oil spill site....

Autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) are commonly used to support oceanographic science by providing water-column mapping, seafloor bathymetric and photographic survey, and deep-sea exploration capabilities. In practice, the mapping activities carried out by AUVs consist of flying either pre-programmed tracklines (most propeller-driven AUVs), or e...

The US National Deep Submergence Facility (NDSF) provides near-bottom multibeam mapping capabilities from the autonomous underwater vehicle Sentry and the remotely operated vehicle Jason. These vehicles can be used to depths of 4500 and 6500m respectively. Both vehicles are equipped with Reson 7125 400khz multibeam sonars as well as compatible navi...

Water velocity measurements are crucial to quantifying fluxes and better understanding water as a fundamental transport mechanism for marine chemical and biological processes. The importance of flux to understanding these processes makes it a crucial component of astrobiological exploration to moons possessing large bodies of water, such as Europa....

NASA's Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) program is a science-driven program to produce advances in scientific and technological capabilities for planetary exploration. Oceanographic robotic vehicles and planetary exploration robots have proven to be highly effective scientific tools for performing scientific researc...

The Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Mississippi Canyon block 252 of the Gulf of Mexico created the largest recorded offshore oil spill. The well outflow's multiple leak sources, turbulent multiphase flow, tendency for hydrate formation, and extreme source depth of 1500 m below the sea surface complicated the quantitative estimation of oil and gas...

In February and March 2010 we conducted preliminary exploration for hydrothermal plume signals along the East Chile Rise where it intersects the continental margin at the Chile Triple Junction (CTJ). This work was conducted as one component of our larger NOAA-OE funded INSPIRE project (Investigation of South Pacific Reducing Environments) aboard RV...

The hybrid vehicle Nereus employs an energy efficient architecture to enable novel modes of remote operation. Available energy is limited by the capacity of Nereus's on-board batteries. Nereus's energy design was developed by first creating representative dive profiles for candidate missions, and then developing an energy budget for each mission. T...

The Deepwater Horizon blowout is the largest offshore oil spill in history. We present results from a subsurface hydrocarbon survey using an autonomous underwater vehicle and a ship-cabled sampler. Our findings indicate the presence of a continuous plume of oil, more than 35 kilometers in length, at approximately 1100 meters depth that persisted fo...

Inversion of near-bottom magnetic data reveals a well-defined low crustal magnetization zone (LMZ) near a local topographic high (3747S, 4939E) on the ultraslow-spreading Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR). The magnetic data were collected by the autonomous underwater vehicle ABE on board R/V DaYangYiHao in February-March 2007. The first active hydrothe...

Thirty years after the first discovery of high-temperature submarine venting, the vast majority of the global Mid Ocean Ridge remains unexplored for hydrothermal activity. Of particular interest are the world’s ultra-slow spreading ridges which were the last to be demonstrated to host high-temperature venting, but may host systems particularly rele...

The water column imprint of the hydrothermal plume observed at the Nibelungen field (8°18′S 13°30′W) is highly variable in space and time. The off-axis location of the site, along the southern boundary of a non-transform ridge offset at the joint between two segments of the southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge, is characterized by complex, rugged topography...

In this paper we address the problem of localizing active hydrothermal vents on the seafloor using an Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV). The plumes emitted by hydrothermal vents are the result of thermal and chemical inputs from submarine hot spring systems into the overlying ocean. The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s Autonomous Benthic Ex...

This paper reports an overview of the navigation and control system design for the new Nereus hybrid underwater robotic vehicle (HROV). Vehicle performance during its first sea trials in November 2007 near Hawaii, and in May and June 2009 in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench is reported. During the latter expedition, the vehicle successfull...

Every year, natural petroleum seepage emits 0.2-2Tg of oil to the ocean. Significant oil seepage can build large underwater mounds, consisting of tar deposits with morphologies similar to volcanic lava flows, known as asphalt volcanoes. Such events are typically accompanied by large fluxes of the greenhouse gas methane. Marine sediments from the Sa...

We report two recent expeditions funded by NASA's Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets (ASTEP) program that demonstrate how advances in telemetry and autonomy can advance investigation astrobiological exploration methodologies.

An AUV equipped with analytical sensors and autonomous decision-making elements facilitating exploration, discovery, and characterization of life forms.

The hybrid remotely operated vehicle Nereus, developed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in collaboration with the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center Pacific and Johns Hopkins University, is designed to provide a new level of access to a maximum depth of 11,000 m. Nereus operates in two different modes. The vehicle can operate untethe...

The National Research Council's Committee on the Evolution of the National Oceanographic Research Fleet reviewed scientific and technological issues that could affect the evolution of the University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) academic fleet. They examined a number of factors including: the impacts of advanced technologies, suc...

We report the first systematic exploration for and characterization of hydrothermal vents and vent ecosystems on the short (~110 km), deep (> 5000 m), ultra-slow-spreading (<20 mm yr-1) Mid-Cayman Rise in the Caribbean Sea. This work was carried out aboard the RV Cape Hatteras in October-November 2009 as part of the ChEss Project of the Census of M...

This paper reports the results of sea trials of the Nereus hybrid underwater robotic vehicle (HROV) conducted in May and June 2009 in the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench, where the vehicle successfully performed scientific observation and sampling operations at hadal depths of 10,903 m. The Nereus underwater vehicle is designed to perform sci...

The Nereus vehicle will enable scientists to explore remote regions of the oceans, such as under the polar ice caps and deep trenches, up to depths of 10 972m (36 000ft). Technology limitations have prevented routine, cost-effective access to these remote regions, and the final 4500m of the ocean remain largely unexplored. New solutions to deep div...

This paper reviews deep ocean science operations conducted by the Autonomous Benthic Explorer (ABE), an AUV built and operated by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). ABE's operational accomplishments to-date are summarized and a previously unreported survey-the mapping of deepwater corals and their habitats using multibeam sonar and a...

Near-bottom magnetic field data were collected by the Autonomous Benthic Explorer (ABE) of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution during the second Chinese cruise to the Southwest Indian Ridge (SWIR) on board R/V DaYangYiHao in February-March 2007. Inversion of these data for crustal magnetization reveals a well- defined, circular, low magnetization...

The complex relationships between geological setting and hydrothermal venting have, to date, largely been explored with ship-based surveys that effectively examine regional relationships, or with remotely operated vehicles (ROV) and manned submersibles which allow close examination of individual vent fields. Higher- resolution surveys than are poss...

Few methods presently exist for routine benthic survey and sampling operations under permanent moving ice in high latitudes. Many benthic survey and sampling techniques commonly employed for blue-water oceanography are unsuitable for operations in ice covered seas due to the constrined maneuverability inherent in icebreaker operations. Over-theside...

During 2004-08 we have conducted a series of five expeditions mobilizing the ABE autonomous underwater vehicle aboard various research ships of opportunity to prospect for and locate sites of hydrothermal activity along sections of back-arc basin and/or mid-ocean ridge where mid-water hydrothermal plumes had previously been detected. In all circums...

The Hybrid Remotely Operated Vehicle (HROV) Nereus, developed by the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) with the support of the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center San Diego (SSC San Diego) and the Johns Hopkins University, is intended to provide a new level of access for deep oceanographic research to a maximum depth of 11,000 meters....

This paper reports an overview of the new Nereus hybrid underwater vehicle and summarizes the vehicle's performance during its first sea trials in November 2007. Nereus is a novel operational underwater vehicle designed to perform scientific survey and sampling to the full depth of the ocean of 11,000 meters - almost twice the depth of any present-...

The shallow ocean crust of the mid-ocean ridge (MOR) is a critical environment where important chemical and biological exchanges occur. Resolving the 3-D structure of the subsurface environment beneath MOR crests at spatial scales ranging from 1-1000 meters remains a continuing challenge in marine geophysics. Previous submerged gravity surveys have...

During segment-scale studies of the southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR), 7–12° S, we found evidence in the water column for high-temperature hydrothermal activity, off-axis, east of Ascension Island. Extensive water column and seafloor work using both standard CTD and deep submergence AUV and ROV deployments led to the discovery and sampling of the “...

We report results from an investigation of the geologic processes controlling hydrothermal activity along the previously-unstudied southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge (3–7°S). Our study employed the NOC (UK) deep-tow sidescan sonar instrument, TOBI, in concert with the WHOI (USA) autonomous underwater vehicle, ABE, to collect information concerning hydroth...

In this paper we address the problem of localizing active hydrothermal vents on the seafloor using an autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV). Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Autonomous Benthic Explorer (ABE) (see Fig.1) AUV has been successfully used in several hydrothermal vents prospecting missions. Recently, a three-stage nested approach [1]...

We describe a three-phase use of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's Autonomous Benthic Explorer (ABE), to locate, map and photograph previously undiscovered fields of high temperature submarine hydrothermal vents. Our approach represents both a complement to and a significant advance beyond the prior state of the art. Previously, hydrotherm...

This chapter deals with the main underwater robotic topics. First, abrief introduction showing the constantly expanding role of marine robotics in oceanic engineering is given; this section also contains some historical backgrounds. Most of the following sections strongly overlap with the corresponding chapters presented in this handbook; hence, to...

This paper demonstrates the application of oc-cupancy grid mapping to autonomous robotic chemical plume source localization. We formu-late the chemical plume tracing problem as one of resolving an occupancy grid map of candi-date plume source locations. Our method's sig-nificance is its applicability to scenarios with multiple plume sources. We dem...

Brothers volcano, located about 310 km NE of New Zealand along the magmatic front of the Kermadec arc, is one of the best studied intraoceanic arc submarine volcanoes. Its 3.0 x 3.5 km caldera is slightly elliptical, with the long axis oriented about N320°E and has more than 300 m relief from a rim at ~1500 m to a maximum depth of 1880 m in its NW...

Author Posting. © Oceanography Society, 2007. This article is posted here by permission of Oceanography Society for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Oceanography 20, 4 (2007): 52-61. Human-occupied submersibles, towed vehicles, and tethered remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) have traditionally been used t...

This paper reports the predicted performance of a flight-control system for Nereus, a new underwater vehicle designed for oceanographic operations to 11,000 m depth. We investigated three operating configurations: (a) a vectored thrust dynamic foil configuration suited for zero speed hover through intermediate speeds; (b) a level flight mode suited...

The effect of volcanic activity on submarine hydrothermal systems has been well documented along fast- and intermediate-spreading centers but not from slow-spreading ridges. Indeed, volcanic eruptions are expected to be rare on slow-spreading axes. Here we report the presence of hydrothermal venting associated with extremely fresh lava flows at an...

This paper addresses the problem of autonomous localization of multiple gas or odor sources in an indoor environment with no strong airflow. In our approach, a robot iteratively builds an occupancy grid map from successive measurements of odor concentration. The resulting map shows the probability of each discrete cell in the map containing an acti...

The goal of this ambitious project is to provide the oceanographic research community with the first capable and cost-effective technology for regular and systematic access to the world's oceans to 11,000 meters. The vehicle, named after the Greek mythical God Nereus, will be able to operate untethered as a fully autonomous vehicle, and also as a s...

Autonomous and remotely operated underwater vehicles play complementary roles in the discovery, exploration, and detailed study of hydrothermal vents. Beginning with clues provided by towed or lowered instruments, autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs) can localize and make preliminary photographic surveys of vent fields. In addition to finding and...

Recent advances in underwater vehicle navigation and sonar technology now permit detailed mapping of complex seafloor bathymetry found at mid-ocean ridge crests. Imagenex 881 (675 kHz) scanning sonar data collected during low-altitude (∼5 m) surveys conducted with DSV Alvin were used to produce submeter resolution bathymetric maps of five hydrother...

This paper reports the development and at-sea deployment of a set of algorithms that have enabled the autonomous underwater vehicle ABE to conduct near-bottom surveys in the deep sea. Algorithms for long baseline acoustic positioning, terrain-following, and automated nested surveys are reported.

In August 2006, hydrothermal activity within the eastern Manus Basin was investigated using a combination of mapping and sampling (using AUV ABE and ROV Jason2). Objectives included identifying geological settings, examining interactions of seawater with felsic rocks, and determining the extent of volatile magmatic inputs into these systems. Hydrot...

This paper reports the development and at-sea deployment of a set of algorithms that have enabled our autonomous underwater vehicle, ABE, to conduct near-bottom surveys in the deep sea. Algorithms for long baseline acoustic positioning, terrain-following, and automated nested surveys are reported.

In August 2006, hydrothermal activity within the eastern Manus Basin north of Papua New Guinea was investigated using a combination of mapping (SeaBeam from the R/V Melville, near-bottom multi-beam sonar and magnetometer from AUV ABE and ROV Jason-2) and sampling (fluids and solids using ROV Jason-2). Objectives included identifying tectonic/geolog...

The ABE autonomous vehicle has been used to search for and locate new sites of hydrothermal activity on 3 cruises, to the Lau Basin (2004) and the southern Mid-Atlantic Ridge (2005, 2006). Over the course of these expeditions we have consistently and successfully employed a three-phase strategy to locate new sites of hydrothermal activity by: i) ma...