Fine- and microstructure observations at Fieberling Guyot : R/V New Horizon cruise report

Abstract

This report describes fine- and microstructure profile data taken on a cruise to Fieberling Guyot, a seamount in the northeast subtropical Pacific Ocean. The work performed at sea, instruments used, data return and processing procedures will be summarized here. This cruise took place between March 4 and March 28, 1991 on the R/V New Horizon. and was part of the interdisciplinary Accelerated Research Initiative (ARI) for Abrupt Topography sponsored by the Office of Naval Research. An overall goal of the ARI was to understand the physical, biological, and geological processes occurring near a seamount. The scientific objective of the Seamount Mixing Cruise was to collect data describing the oceanic fine-scale velocity and density fields, as well as the related turbulence and mixing in the vicinity of the seamount. The High Resolution Profiler (HRP) was deployed 95 times above and around the seamount. As well, two test dives were conducted on the way to the site, and eight deployments completed in deep basdins off the southern California coast before returning to port. The near-synoptic surveys of the seamount were completed with the deployment of 128 Expendable Current Profilers (XCP's). The temperature field of the upper 760 meters of water within a 50 kilometer radius of the seamount was mapped using 144 Expendable Bathythermographs (XBT's).