A forthcoming 27 day French-New Zealand research cruise is scheduled on l'Atalante for mid-2015. The cruise is called VESPA (Volcanic Evolution of South Pacific Arcs). It is a 27 day cruise, that will start and finish in Noumea, New Caledonia, sometime in the window 15 May-16 June 2015.
It is basically a rock dredging cruise but will also do some shallow seismic and magnetic profile data acquisition. The aim of the cruise is to obtain submarine arc and backarc basin lavas that we can date and analyse. Their age, geochemistry and isotopic composition will help piece together the tectonic history of the backarc basins between New Zealand and New Caledonia. A Miocene backarc basin spreading ridge crest is among the sample targets for the cruise.
The chief scientists Dr. Nick Mortimer of GNS, New Zealand and Dr Martin Patriat of IFREMER and have assembled a team of French and New Zealand scientists. But there are places for students and for other scientists and we would invite wider participation.
Please send your application to the InterRidge office (interridge@gmail.com;coordinator@interridge.org). If you are selected to participate the cuise the interridge office will provide cruise bursaries upto $2000 to cover your flight to the cruise (http://www.interridge.org/cruisebursary).
