TT 01/2008 - ROV Jason cruise tn228: South and East of Tasmania

The collaborative voyage, on RV Thomas G Thompson, including US and Australian researchers was led by chief scientists Dr Jess Adkins from the California Institute of Technology and Dr Ron Thresher from CSIRO's Climate Adaptation and Wealth from Oceans Flagships. This voyage follows up on work done on RV Southern Surveyor during SS 01/2008. The survey deployed the ROV Jason in the Huon and Tasman Fracture Commonwealth Marine Reserve, south-west of Tasmania, It also sampled areas of the Cascade Seamount and seamounts off the coast at St Helens (Tas). The focus of the survey was collection of fossil corals (Desmophyllum sp.), description of habitats at depth between 700 and 4000 m depth and establishing two long-term monitoring sites in the Huon CMR (settlement plates). It explored and sampled on the near vertical slice in the earth's crust, known as the Tasman Fracture Zone, which drops from approximately 2000 metres to over 4000 metres. Jason was used to collect video, high definition still images (mosaiced images) and selective samples of fossil corals and invertebrate fauna.

本航次搭载于托马斯·G·汤普森号研究船（RV Thomas G Thompson），由美澳两国科研人员共同参与，首席科学家为加州理工学院（California Institute of Technology）的杰斯·阿德金斯博士，以及澳大利亚联邦科学与工业研究组织（CSIRO）气候适应与海洋财富旗舰计划的罗恩·特雷舍博士。本航次是对2008年第1期SS航次（SS 01/2008）中"南方探索者号"（RV Southern Surveyor）科考工作的后续跟进。本次科考在塔斯马尼亚州西南部的胡恩与塔斯曼断裂联邦海洋保护区部署了遥控水下机器人（Remotely Operated Vehicle，ROV）"杰森号"（Jason），同时对喀斯喀特海山及塔斯马尼亚圣海伦斯沿岸附近的海山区域开展采样工作。本次科考的核心目标包括：采集化石珊瑚（Desmophyllum sp.）样本、描述700至4000米水深范围内的深海生境，以及在胡恩联邦海洋保护区（Huon CMR）设立两个采用定植板装置的长期监测站点。科考团队还对被称为塔斯曼断裂带的近垂直地壳切片区域进行了勘探与采样，该区域水深从约2000米骤降至4000米以上。本次科考中，遥控水下机器人"杰森号"被用于采集视频资料、高清静态拼接图像，以及针对性的化石珊瑚与无脊椎动物群落样本。