ME52A:
Recent Deepwater Geological and Biological Discoveries in the Central, Southern, and Western Pacific Ocean II


Session ID#: 37345

Session Description:
The Pacific is the largest ocean on our planet and yet remains largely unexplored, particularly in the deep waters of the Central, Southern, and Western regions. However, there has been a recent spike in the amount of new information and research findings resulting from an increase in ships with deep-water vehicles operating in these regions. To name a few, the NOAA ship Okeanos Explorer just completed its 3-year CAPSTONE campaign to investigate the deep waters of the US Pacific Monuments, the Schmidt Ocean Institute's ship R/VFalkor has completed a variety of individual projects from Hawaii to the Mariana Back Arc, and the University of Hawaii ships have ongoing projects in the Emperor Seamounts. These efforts have largely focused on benthic biology and geology and with more limited scope, pelagic biology. Specific topics have included ferromanganese-encrusted seamount communities, deep-sea corals and fisheries, hydrothermal vents, subduction zones, back-arc geology, and the geologic history of seamounts on the Pacific plate. The information gleaned from these projects will hopefully be used to effectively motivate more research and to help manage ocean resources across the Pacific Ocean. This multidisciplinary session will consist of presentations of discoveries and initial syntheses of the expeditions’ results.
Primary Chair:  Christopher Kelley, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States
Co-chairs:  Diva Amon, Benioff Ocean Sciences Laboratory - UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, United States, William W. Chadwick Jr, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States and Randi Rotjan, University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, MA, United States
Moderators:  Christopher Kelley, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States and Diva Amon, Benioff Ocean Sciences Laboratory - UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, United States
Student Paper Review Liaison:  Randi Rotjan, Boston University, Boston, United States
Index Terms:

3045 Seafloor morphology, geology, and geophysics [MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS]
3080 Submergence instruments: ROV, AUV, submersibles [MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS]
4804 Benthic processes, benthos [OCEANOGRAPHY: BIOLOGICAL AND CHEMICAL]
9355 Pacific Ocean [GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION]
Cross-Topics:
  • B - Biodiversity
  • F - Fisheries
  • MG - Marine Geology and Sedimentology
  • RS - Regional Studies

Abstracts Submitted to this Session:

2016 Exploration Shows Contrasting Fluid Chemistry and Hydrothermal Vent Communities Between the Mariana Arc and Back-Arc (322564)
David A Butterfield, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, United States, William W. Chadwick Jr, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States, Benjamin I Larson, Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, Seattle, WA, United States, Verena Tunnicliffe, University of Victoria, Deptartment of Biology/School of Earth & Ocean Sciences, Victoria, BC, Canada, Amanda E. Bates, University of Southampton, National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, United Kingdom, Kevin K Roe, University of Washington, Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean & Ecosystem Studies, Seattle, United States, Tamara Baumberger, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Newport, Oregon, United States, John E Lupton, NOAA/PMEL, Newport, OR, United States and Marvin D Lilley, University of Washington, School of Oceanography, Seattle, United States
Submarine Volcanoes, Ecosystems and Landscape Evolution in the NE Lau Basin (326685)
Dr. Kenna Harmony Rubin, Ph.D., University of Rhode Island, Graduate School of Oceanography, Narragansett, United States, Robert W Embley, Oregon State University, CIMRS, Corvallis, OR, United States, William W. Chadwick Jr., Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, United States, Joseph A Resing, Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and Ocean, and NOAA/PMEL, Seattle, WA, United States, David A Butterfield, University of Washington, Cooperative Institute for Climate, Ocean & Ecosystem Studies, Seattle, United States, Timothy M Shank, WHOI, Woods Hole, MA, United States, Julie A Huber, Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA, United States, Tamara Baumberger, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Newport, Oregon, United States, Cornel E J de Ronde, GNS Science, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, Susan G Merle, Oregon State University, Cooperative Institute for Marine Ecosystem and Resource Studies, Newport, United States, John E Lupton, NOAA/PMEL, Newport, OR, United States, Sharon L Walker, NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, Seattle, United States and NE Lau Research Group
Midwater Highlights from the CAPSTONE Campaign (317817)
Mike Ford, NOAA, NESDIS, Silver Spring, United States, Dhugal Lindsay, Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama, Japan and Amanda Nicole Netburn, PhD, Cooperative Institute for Ocean Exploration, Research & Technology, Florida Atlantic University and NOAA Ocean Exploration and Research, Silver Spring, United States
Surveys of Biological Communities on Ferromanganese-Encrusted Guyots in the Prime Crust Zone (315890)
Christopher Kelley, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States and Diva Amon, Benioff Ocean Sciences Laboratory - UC Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, United States
Biodiversity of the deep-sea benthic fauna in the American Samoa region (313141)
Santiago Herrera, Lehigh University, Oceans Research Center, Bethlehem, PA, United States, Matthew G Jackson, University of California, Earth Science, Santa Barbara, CA, United States, Kelley Elliott, NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Silver Spring, MD, United States, Meme Lobecker, NOAA Office of Exploration and Research (ERT, Inc.), Durham, NH, United States and Scientific Team of EX1702 American Samoa Expedition
Just what is the Phoenix Islands Protected Area protecting? (321627)
Erik E Cordes1, Steven Auscavitch1 and Randi Rotjan2, (1)Temple University, Philadelphia, PA, United States, (2)Boston University, Boston, United States
Deep-Sea Octocoral Discoveries in the West, Central, and South Pacific (320043)
Les Watling, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI, United States, Abby Lapointe, University of Hawaii at Manoa, HI, United States, Erin E. Easton, University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, South Padre Island, United States and Scott France, University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Lafayette, LA, United States
Defying Dissolution: Discovery of Deep-Sea Scleractinian Coral Reefs in the North Pacific (318075)
Amy Baco-Taylor1, Nicole B Morgan1, E. Brendan Roark2, Mauricio Silva3, Shari Ann Yvon-Lewis4 and Kelci Miller5, (1)Florida State University, Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences, Tallahassee, United States, (2)Texas A&M University College Station, Department of Geography, College Station, United States, (3)Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, United States, (4)Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole, United States, (5)Texas A & M University College Station, College Station, TX, United States

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