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USGS Coastal and Marine Geology Program

Field Activity Details for field activity 1980-001-FA

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Other ID: Legs I, II, and III

Status: Completed

Organization(s): USGS, Woods Hole Coastal and Marine Science Center

Funding Program(s):

Principal Investigator(s): Bradford Butman

Affiliate Investigator(s):

Information Specialist(s):

Data Type(s): Environmental Data: Temperature, Time Series: Mooring (physical oceanography)

Scientific Purpose/Goals: Objectives were to recover instrumentation on the continental shelf. We planned to recover the instruments on OCEANUS 77 (FA 79035, Dec. 13-20, 1979), but the acoustic releases failed due to a bad set of release batteries. Moorings to be recovered: Station Q (40 30N, 70 13W) recover tripod mooring 178, deploy current mooring 191; Station B (38 44N, 73 38W) recover current mooring 180, recover tripod mooring 177. All instruments were recovered by grappling since releases failed. We planned cross-shelf XBT sections. Sidescan sonar was used to locate the moorings.

Vehicle(s):

Start Port/Location: Woods Hole, MA

End Port/Location: Woods Hole, MA

Start Date: 1980-01-03

End Date: 1980-01-23

Equipment Used: XBT, Bottom platform

Information to be Derived: Time series data; Suspended sediment concentrations;

Summary of Activity and Data Gathered: This cruise was conducted in 3 legs: Leg I (Jan. 3-5, 1980), Leg II (Jan. 6-12, 1980), and Leg III (Jan. 20-23). The releases, which failed in Dec. 1979 necessitating this recovery cruise, were checked to determine cause of failure. All 3 releases (Moorings 177, 178, and 180) had receiver batteries manufactured in Feb. 1979 and all failed. Other releases with batteries manufactured in Oct. 1978 and May 1979 were OK. The batteries were returned to Malloy for inspection. Fortunately only 1 VACM was lost (indirectly) due to release failure. In retrospect, were were extremely fortunate to have recovered almost all our equipment given such disastrous release results. Mooring deployed: 1 (#191 recovered FA 80009 OCEANUS 81 May 23 - Jun. 1, 1980). Moorings recovered: 3 (#177 and 178, both deployed FA 79021 OCEANUS 67 Aug. 6-13, 1979; and #180 (VACM 0512 lost), deployed FA 79021 OCEANUS 67 Aug. 6-13, 1979). XBTs: 23; Surface salinity samples: 23.

Staff: Bradford Butman, Barry Irwin

Affiliate Staff:
Andy Eliason - Eliason Data Service
Leg III; Robert Butman - technician/guest observer - Leg I

Notes: Original Center People field contained: Brad Butman - Ch. Sci., Legs I, II and III; Barry Irwin - technician, Legs I and II.

Location:

Georges Bank, Mid-Atlantic continental shelf, United States, North America, North Atlantic;

Boundaries
North: 41.2 South: 38.5 West: -74.9 East: -70.1

Platform(s):

photo of Whitefoot
Whitefoot

Publications

Portals/Viewers

Documents associated with this activity

Title Survey Equipment Description
Cruise report (document not focused on specific equipment) Chief Scientist's cruise report document ship movement, equipment, personnel and notes. Also includes station locations with station information.

Data Acquired

Survey EquipmentSurvey InfoData Type(s)Data Collected
XBT --- Temperature
Bottom platform --- Mooring (physical oceanography)
1980-001-FA-OM-001 (Georges Bank Sediment mooring data)
1980-001-FA-OM-002 (MAB mooring data)

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