Benthic images recorded by a Remotely Operated Vehicle video camera during cruise JC241 in the eastern Clarion-Clipperton Zone (Pacific Ocean, 2023)

A collection of video images was obtained using an oblique-looking camera mounted on the UK ISIS Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), deployed from the RRS James Cook during cruise JC241 in the abyssal plain (~4700 m depth) of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone, Pacific Ocean, in 2023. The images were obtained in an area that included a site disturbed by a deep-sea mining machine in 1979. The mining machine (9 m wide, 14 m long, 4.5 m high) was operated by the Ocean Minerals Company (OMCO) from the ship Hughes Glomar Explorer on the seafloor between 15 and 18 March 1979 at a site centred 13°44'N 126°13.5'W. The videos show the disturbance caused by the past mining activities. The data were collected by scientists from the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, UK as part of the NERC-funded Seabed Mining And Resilience To EXperimental impact (SMARTEX) project (NE/T003537/1).