RV Sonne Voyage Report SO256_2017
July 28, 2017

Authors: Mohtadi, M., Beaman, R.J., Boehnert, S., Daumann, M., Floren, V.M., Gould, J.L.A., Hirabayashi, S., Hollstein, M., Kienast, M., Lückge, A., Meyer-Schack, B.I.G., Obrochta, S.P., O’Toole, L.M., Pall, J.R., Renema, W., Rodehutscord, V., Sanborn, K.L., Schade, T., Steinke, S., Webster, J.M., Wenderlich, M.J., Yokoyama, Y.

Year: 2017

Publication: R/V SONNE Cruise Report SO256, TACTEAC, Temperature And Circulation History of The East Australian Current, Auckland (New Zealand) – Darwin (Australia), 17 April – 09 May 2017. No. 316, Berichte MARUM – Zentrum für Marine Umweltwissenschaften, Fachbereich Geowissenschaften., Universität Bremen, Bremen, Germany, pp. 81.

Abstract

The R/V SONNE expedition SO-256 (TACTEAC) took place between April 17th and May 9th, 2017. The expedition started in Auckland, New Zealand and ended in Darwin, Australia. The first and the last 4.5 days of the expedition were spent for transit into, and out of, the study area in the Great Barrier Reef (GBR), respectively.

The goal of this expedition was to collect water and sediment samples along the GBR in order to reconstruct the history of the East Australian Current (EAC) and its effect of the evolution of the GBR and the continental climate of eastern Australia.

The 22 scientist attending this expedition made use of the ship equipment to collect swath bathymetry and sub-bottom profiling data, and water samples by a CTDrosette water sampler. Sediment samples were collected using a gravity corer, a multiple corer, a chain bag dredge, and a giant box corer.

Samples were collected at 36 stations in 9 study areas off the Fraser Island (~26°S), One Tree Reef and Bunker (~23°S), Capricorn Channel (~22°S) and Swains/Marion Plateau (~21°S), Hydrographer’s Passage (~20°S), South Queensland Trough and Gloria Knolls (~17°S), Central Queensland Trough (~16°S), Ribbon Reefs (~15°S) and off Cape York (~12°S).

During the 10 working days of the R/V SONNE expedition SO-256, 49 casts including 4 CTD-rosette water sampler casts, 5 chain bag dredge casts, 3 giant box corer casts, 14 multiple corer and 23 gravity corer casts were deployed. More than 100 m of sediment were recovered, described and sub-sampled on board, and about 8 hours of HD images from the seafloor were collected.

Samples and data have been shipped to Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan, The Netherlands and China for further processing and will provide clues on the history and fate of the EAC and GBR in the coming months/years.

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