AFI 02/36_01 - Geochemical Tracing of Pacific-to-Atlantic Mantle Flow through the Drake Passage/Scotia Sea Gateway - Dredge sampling information from the Scotia Sea collected in February and March 2004

The target area was along the eastern segments of the West Scotia Ridge, an ocean spreading centre which stopped spreading about 10 million years ago. The spreading centre has high topographic relief and contains an axial rift, which has flanks that are suitable for dredging. The plan was to map the spreading centre using the swath bathymetry system, and then to use this map to locate the best dredging sites. Thirteen dredges were successful in recovering oceanic rocks of mixed sizes, up to and including very large boulders and dredge paths of up to 1 km were followed.