BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

ELEFANTE-12 Cruise (29HE20120119) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2012, A physical-geological mooring is installed at the East of Elephant Island in order to monitor the presence / absence of the Antarctic slope front on the south slope of the South Scotia Sea, and to study its role in the modification of intermediate waters of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The addition of a sediment trap will study the flow of sediments associated with the dynamics of the area and identify terrigenous and biogenic composition. 1) Placement of an anchor constituted by current meters and temperature sensors, salinity and pressure at different depths, in addition to a sediment trap placed near the bottom. The anchor has a length of about 700 m and can be installed on a background of about 1200 m. 2 )Completion of several transects for water sampling using CTD. The purpose of these transects is to calibrate the anchored instruments and carry out a hydrographic survey of the slope front and the southern border of the circumpolar current at the moment of anchoring. The CTDs will be made to the bottom

ANTARTICA-2012 Cruise (29HE20120128) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2012, Hydrographic cruise in the South Shetland to ensure safety in the navigation of BIO LasPalmas and Hespérides in their operations of support to the Spanish Antarctic bases

AMULEY Cruise (29HE20120507) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2012, Expedition for the Canarian continental shelf expansion, an expedition to obtain the scientific data that endorse the proposal of the extension of the Spanish sovereignty in theface of the UN about the marine bottoms to the west of the Canary archipelago

ZEE-2012 Cruise (29HE20120620) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2012, ZEE-2012 Expedition for the Canarian continental shelf expansion, an expedition to obtain the scientific data that endorse the proposal of the extension of the Spanish sovereignty in the face of the UN about the marine bottoms to the west of the Canary archipelago

ELEFANTE-13 Cruise (29HE20130121) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2013, In January 2012, a physical-geological mooring was installed to the East of Elephant Island onboard the RV Hesperides. The mooring was constituted by current meters, temperature, conductivity, and pressure sensors located at selected depths. The mooring was deployed for one year period, and successfully recovered on January 23rd 2013 during the Hesperides Antarctic Survey 2012-2013. The goal of the experiment is to monitor the presence / absence of the Antarctic slope front over the southern slope of the South Scotia Ridge

SCAN-2013_CODEREC Cruise (29HE20130202) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2013, SCAN 2013 ( SCotia-ANtarctic) & 'Lithological and chronostratigraphic study of recent sedimentary units of Puerto Foster (Deception Island, Antarctica), COREDEC ' During the 2013 SCAN cruise, two basic objectives related to the evolution of the Western Antarctica: (a) plate tectonics and the development of ocean basins in the Scotia Sea and Straits of Brandsfield, and (b) the paleoceanographic processes that were derived from the establishment of the Circumpolar Current Antarctic (ACC) after the opening of the Drake Passage and the development of Antarctic Deep Water, with its implications and possible contribution to global change. High resolution (SAR) seismic reflection profiles, very high resolution seismic profiles have been made using the TOPAS system, EM 120 multibeam echo sounder, magnetometry and gravimetry in the Scotia Sea and Strait of Brandsfield. 17 SAR profiles have been obtained, with all operating systems with a total of 2679.4 km. They have made a total of 47 lines with TOPAS, MAG and GRAV, along a route of 5,025 km. They have dredged, in addition, 5 morphological reliefs and 3 gravity witnesses have been taken in 1 high with outcropping series. The dredges carried out have provided excellent quality samples of the igneous and metamorphic basement of the Scotia Sea. The objective of CODEREC has been to obtain Seven sediment cores from the inner bay of Deception Island

DETSUFA Cruise (29HE20130304) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2013, The objectives of the DETSUFA cruise (BIO Hespérides 04/03–17/03/2013) are (1) to evaluate the footprint in the seafloor of a series of earthquake-generated subaerial landslides that took place in Fiordo de Aysén, Chile, in 2007, which entered the seawater generating a number of destructive tsunamis which killed 10 and produced significant damage in the local infrastructure, (2) to reconstruct the morphology and dynamics of these landslides in order to obtain input data for tsunami modelling, and (3) to determine the occurrence of similar episodes in the past that might have generated other tsunamis, in order to establish a possible recurrence period of such events. The cruise fits within the global scientific interest stirred up by tsunamis in general, being the Fiordo de Aysén a highly relevant analogue for the understanding of this kind of events occurring in semi-enclosed basins such as fjords, lakes or water dams, which often harbour large human population and infrastructures

FICARAM-XV Cruise (29HE20130320) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2013, FICARAM cruise aims to investigate the evolution of decadal anthropogenic carbon and to evaluate the CO2 uptake capacity in the sector South Atlantic Ocean and its spread to Ecuador and Nord-tropical zone. Another important component of FICARAM cruise aims examine the biological and biogeochemical mechanisms that hinder total dissolved organic carbon (DOC) remineralisation in marine systems, taking a multidisciplinary perspective and applying many different approaches. This objective is the global objective of the Spanish project DOREMI that join this FICARAM cruise. Along the section, the DOREMI project will test the effect of different factors (carbon and nutrient additions, and microbial structure) on DOC degradation in epipelagic, mesopelagic and deep waters, developing some experiments determining the potential degradability of mesopelagic and epipelagic DOM, and the role that labile C supplements plays regulating this process and by the microbial structure

SUBVENT-1 Cruise (29HE20130921) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2013, The objective of the SUBVENT-1 cruise is to investigate the evidence of emissions from fluids detected west of the Canary Islands, in the deep zone of the continental margin, where possible acoustic feathers that could have been identified generated by underwater emissions of fluids. The SUBVENT1-0913 cruise has been carried out along the lower slope of the continental margin of the Canary Islands. This area is characterized by the presence of several recent geological structures. Among these are the distal parts of the volcanoclastics debris deposits originated by volcanic avalanches of the Canary Islands, transported by gravity along the slope and probably related in origin to eruptive episodes. In the southern part, numerous and different reliefs (seamounts, hills or mounds) of volcanic origin occur. The most frequents features display heights between 30 and 300 m and they have constituted one of the main aims of this survey. Moreover, in this sector there are several subparallel linear scarps with similar directions to the slope trend that could be associated with the aforementioned mounds. The acquisition of new geophysical data and samples during this cruise will allow a better understanding of the origin of these mounds and the emission processes that have generated them. On the other hand, the knowledge of the relationships between debris and hemipelagic sediments together with those associated with possible venting processes in the area, will reveal not only the sedimentary evolution of this margin, but also to establish emission episodes generating mounds and to know their growth patterns. Furthermore, it would be possible to evaluate the sedimentation rate in the area and the role played by the Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW) mass on this process

ZEE-2014 Cruise (29HE20140429) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2014, During the cruise, which had as main objective the study of the Exclusive Economic Zone of the North of the Iberian Peninsula, 4,983 nautical miles of sounding, verification of anomalies of the magnetic and gravitational field, and probe with penetration capacity in the subsoil have been made , to study the different layers of sediments. The study area covered by the 'Hespérides' has been 58,682 km², which would roughly equal the size of the territory of Castilla-La Mancha. The 2014 ZEE cruise was directed by the Royal Navy Observatory (ROA), with the support of 45 scientists belonging to the Navy Hydrographic Institute (IHM), the Marine Technology Unit (UTM) of the Spanish National Research Council ( CSIC), the Spanish Oceanographic Institute (IEO), the Geological and Mining Institute of Spain (IGME), and the universities of Cantabria, Cádiz, Oviedo and Complutense de Madrid