July 1 - August 10 2007
Longyearbyen, Svalbard to Tromso, Norway
MV Oden
AGAVE was a multi-disciplinary expedition with the primary purpose of finding and characterizing hydrothermal vent fields along ice-covered portions of the Gakkel Ridge. Four instrument platforms were used. A CTD/rosette system was used to characterize water column properties and to search for hydrothermal plumes in target areas defined by results from the Arctic Mid-Ocean Ridge Experiment (AMORE) in 2001. An autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) equipped with water column sensors, including a mass spectrometer and a long-range optical backscatter system, searched for plume "stems" that tightly constrain the seafloor position of the source vent field. An AUV equipped with seafloor sensors, including a multibeam sonar, a magnetometer, and a digital camera, made high-resolution maps and mosaics of the seafloor. A new towed camera and sampling system with real-time surface telemetry was used to obtain biological and geological samples.
PIs: Hedy Edmonds, Susan Humphris, Robert Reves-Sohn, Timothy Shank, and Hanumant Singh
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