ROV Dive S0474 - Auka Vent Field

Join ROV SuBastian from the RV Falkor for the thirteenth dive of the Interdisciplinary Investigation of the Pescadero Basin expedition. This is the fifth dive of the third leg, primarily focused on the biological component. The Auka Vent Field in the South Pescadero Basin consists of eight large edifices and several small hydrothermal features spanning 600 m in a south to north orientation. One of the smallest, is a high-temperature vent (~282 °C) named Dianne’s Vent with a 75-cm-wide orifice confined by 10-cm- wide chimney walls that only rise about 1.5 m above a small carbonate mound composed of chimney and flange talus. This dive has three primary objectives: (1) collect Xenophyophores en route to Dianne’s vent, (2) obtain combined ti-major and gas tight vent fluid samples from Dianne’s vent, (3) take high temp measurements and collect push cores / suction samples in mats near Dianne’s vent, then travel to a site 65 m to the east called The Dolomites to collect rocks, animals, and push cores and correspon