VESPA
Type | Oceanographic cruise |
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Ship | L'Atalante |
Ship owner | Ifremer |
Dates | 22/05/2015 - 17/06/2015 |
Chief scientist(s) | PATRIAT Martin , MORTIMER Nick |
GEO-OCEAN - UMR 6538 Univ. Brest, CNRS, Ifremer, Univ. Bretagne Sud Place Nicolas Copernic 29280 Plouzané |
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DOI | 10.17600/15001100 |
Objective | The VESPA cruise will test specific hypotheses of the age, polarity and evolution of Cretaceous-Miocene volcanic arcs between New Caledonia and New Zealand, by sampling the Norfolk and Loyalty-Three Kings Ridges. VESPA proposes to exploit the fact that the Loyalty/Three Kings Ridge has been separated in two parts by transform motion along the Cook Fracture zone, forming long escarpments along which deep crustal sections of the arc are exposed. This opportunity, unique so far as we know, will be exploited to sample the volcanic arc at different levels of the crust, and also at different distances relative to the trench. Hence the site allows us to study, without the use of drilling, and using petrological, geochemical and isotopic characteristics of the crust and mantle, the evolution in space and time of a volcanic arc. |