OASES AT18-16

To dive on and sample two (or more) hydrothermal fields recently discovered on the Mid Cayman Rise including Piccard - the world's deepest vent-site at 5000m (and maybe also the hottest at >480C) - and Von Damm, a new shallow and low temperature ultramafic-hosted site on top of the Mt Dent oceanic core complex.

This proposal will seek to charaterize the geology, geochemistry, microbiology and macrobiology of two new hydrothermal fields on the Mid Cayman Rise - the Piccard hydrothermal field at ~5000m depth near 18deg33min N, 81deg 43minW and the Von Damm hydrothermal field at ~2300m depth near 18deg23min N, 81deg48minW