BUSCADOR RECOLECTA

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

PUMP Cruise (29HE20140831) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2014, Study of the Vertical Oceanic Pump in mesoscale eddies (PUMP). This project will study the dynamics/kinematics of the ageostrophic secondary circulation (ASC) and mixing in surface mesoscale anticyclonic eddies and how they modulate plankton activity, plankton community structure, and accumulation and downward transport of organic matter (the Vertical Oceanic Pump, VOP). For this purpose we will conduct a novel interdisciplinary sampling strategy to survey an anticyclonic eddy from a Lagrangian perspective with a resolution down to the submesoscale range using cutting-edge instrumentation and methodologies. We will pay particular attention to the control of the ASC by eddy/wind interaction, by mixing, and by current/wind interaction and frontogenesis/frontolysis at its periphery. ASC will be diagnosed from trajectories of drifters drogued at the Ekman layer and at the eddy´s interior and using an omega-type equation that will include direct measurements of mixing/turbulence. Mixing regime, dynamic stability and vertical diffusion of tracers will be observed and derived from direct measurement of mixing/turbulence. Near-inertial waves trapping and its role in driving shear mixing will be studied from drifter trajectories and from the vertical variability of the horizontal velocity field. To establish the dynamics that forces the VOP we will also develop processes-oriented models and implement regional physical and physical-biogeochemical models for the Canary Region. We will also take advantage of the exceptional source of tracer provided by the El Hierro Island submarine volcanic eruption for the study of eddy submesoscale spatial-temporal variability, combining satellite images and modeling. Finally the physical and biogeochemical observations and processes will be combined and correlated to derive a conceptual model of the dynamics of the marine system linked to the VOP in mesoscale eddies

TRANSPEGASO Cruise (29HE20141020) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2014, Study of atmosferic and ocean interchanges.Trans-PEGASO cruise: Take advantage of the transit from Cartagena to Punta Arenas prior to the Antarctic campaign. A small group of researchers will embark together with the instruments already installed for the subsequent PEGASO cruise and, during the southern transit, they will carry out continuous measurements aimed at: (1) setting up the equipment for the PEGASO cruise and solving the problems of operability that may arise; and (2) obtain complementary data to the PEGASO cruise, of great interest because it is a transect across a wide range of latitudes

TIC-MOC Cruise (29HE20150305) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2015, TIC-MOC Tipping Corners in the Meridional Overturning Circulation. The principal objective of the cruise is to characterize the dynamics of the encountering of the Brazil and Malvinas Currents in the Brazil-Malvinas Confluence region. Specific objectives include the characterization of the water masses arriving to the confluence region, the description of the transformations experienced by these water masses , the definition of the frontal systems, the computation of water and property balances, and a description of the principal biogeochemical processes. During the TIC-MOC cruise we will make several stops at specific points (hydrographic stations) to collect data that will allow us to characterize this frontal system. In the hydrographic stations, measurements of physicochemical parameters (speed, temperature, salinity, and turbidity, all depending on the pressure) and biogeochemical (fluorescence, nutrients and dissolved oxygen) will be made. To do this, a rosette will be lowered to the bottom for taking samples of water at 24 depths, together with a CTD (measurements with high vertical resolution of salinity, temperature, dissolved oxygen, fluorescence and turbidity) and LADCP (measurements of the velocity of the Water). The samples of water that we will collect will be used for the determination of inorganic nutrients, microbial respiration, carbon and particulate and dissolved organic nitrogen, particulate and total organic phosphorus

MAFIA Cruise (29HE20150403) carried out on the Research Vessel Hespérides in 2015, Migrants and Active Flux In the Atlantic Ocean-MAFIA. In the ocean there is a set of organisms that perform vertical migrations, with daily periodicity. These are organisms of zooplankton and micronecton (mainly small fish and crustaceans), which during the hours of light occupy the dark region of the ocean and at night migrate to the layers closest to the surface. These animals play a very important role in marine trophic chains, since they are the food of large migrating fish, birds and marine mammals. Its role in the oceanic carbon flux is just what we have been studying in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.The main objective of the Project is to estimate the active flux in warm waters with a global perspective. We propose two cruises during winter-spring and autumn covering the subtropical, tropical and equatorial zones of the Atlantic Ocean . Fifteen oceanographic stations will be performed along a transect from the Canary Islands to the equivalent latitude in the South Atlantic Ocean. Oceanographic features will be studied thought CTD-rosette casts perfomed in all the stations, and plankton and micronekton abundances and distribution patterns will be analyzed through samples taken from the neuston to the bathypelagic zone in selected stations (upwelling and oligotrophic regions)