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The first University of the Sea training program took place in the Coral Sea - Arafura Sea region onboard the French research vessel Marion Dufresne between June 24 and July 8, 2005. The ship sailed from Port Moresby (PNG) to Darwin (Australia). During this two-week period, twenty students representing ten countries [Australia, P.R. China, East Timor, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Sri Lanka] got "hands on" practical experience in both marine data collection and marine research problem solving. The students were under the supervision of Professor Patrick De Deckker (Australian National University) and Assoc. Professor Jock Keene (The University of Sydney). The 2006 cruise departed from Auckland on February 7 and finished in Sydney on February 26. The shipboard programme was supervised by Dr Jock Keene and Julie Dickinson from the University of Sydney, Dr Greg Skilbeck from the University of Technology Sydney, and Professor Patrick De Deckker from the Australian National University. The University of the Sea students joined a research program developed by marine geoscientists from Geoscience Australia. It was part of their 'Lord Howe Rise Project' to evaluate the gas hydrates ('frozen' methane) in the sediments. The survey primarily involved the collection of six giant CALYPSO piston cores over areas of possible gas hydrate (bottom simulating reflectors, BSRs) on the northern Lord Howe Rise. The targets wereareas of seafloor underlain (at a depth of 500 to 600m below the seafloor) by BSRs on the western flank of the Fairway Basin and the central part of the Capel Basin identified on Geoscience Australia multichannel seismic lines collected in 1996 and 1998. Previous coring in the region using standard piston and gravity corers (typically recovery of 4-5 metres length) failed to get below the surface oxidation layer and therefore failed to produce unequivocal geochemical evidence of the presene of gas hydrates at depth. In addition to the coring program, swath, subbottom profiler, gravity and magnetometer data was collected on transits to and from the sampling sites. These data provide detailed information on the bathymetry and structure of the seafloor and underlying geology, particularly of the continental margin of central and northern New South Wales and of the eastern flank of the Lord Howe Rise. |
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