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Project details
| Title: | National Facility External Users: C. Woodroffe (University of Wollongong) |
| Id: | 109 |
| Acronym: | National Facility user: Woodroffe, C. |
| Investigator(s): | Colin Woodroffe
University of Wollongong [details] |
| Description: | |
| Years: | 1998 |
List of surveys that this project was on. Click on column header to sort.
Use [details] link to view survey details (map, reports, metadata etc) including links to download data.
| Survey | Investigator | Description |
|---|---|---|
| SS2013_V02 [details] |
C. Woodroffe (U Woollongong) | MNF Southern Surveyor research voyage SS2013_v02.Carbonate sedimentation at the southern margin of reef growth in the Tasman Sea. Scientific Objectives This research aims to determine the extent and composition of carbonate environments on and around volcanic edifices in the northern Tasman Sea. We plan to undertake the following investigations, listed in order of priority: 1. Examine the bathymetry and sedimentary environments across the shelf around Balls Pyramid, the remnant of a volcanic island just south of Lord Howe Island, from which such data are presently lacking; this will provide a basis for a more complete mapping of benthic habitats in the Lord Howe Marine Park. 2. Establish, using underwater towed video, whether a relict reef exists on the Balls Pyramid platform; this will confirm preliminary evidence that there may be a feature similar to the fossil reef on the shelf around Lord Howe, and would make it the southernmost known reef in the Pacific. Extend towed video to map major habitats of the Lord Howe Island Marine Park. 3. Extract rock cores from the Lord Howe relict reef (and that on the Balls platform, if found) providing material for component, age and geochemical determinations that will yield further insights into sea-level and climate (including palaeotemperature) history. 4. Collect vibrocores from the inner shelf on the Lord Howe shelf (and on the Balls platform if suitable areas are identified), in the lee of the relict reef, to determine the stratigraphy, source and depositional history of sequences of sediment revealed on Topas sub-bottom profiles and which appear to contain generations of 'lagoonal' sediment perhaps indicating that earlier reef features predated, and may underlie, the relict reef. 5. Undertake preliminary bathymetry transects and Topas sub-bottom profiles across the margin of Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs on the transit voyage to Lord Howe Island as a pilot study to better plan further data collection around these reefs in 2014. 6. Determine whether terraces identified on the shelf edge contain evidence of earlier episodes of reef development or are cut into basalt; this will provide evidence of sea level, clarifying the nature of the shoreline when the sea was at these heights (60-70m water depth), and would extend known distribution of pre-Holocene reef if shown to be biogenic features. 7. Examine slump features around both volcanic edifices to clarify their extent, and the nature and composition of sediment that covers them; this will clarify the post-eruptive history of the volcanic islands, and show the degree to which carbonate sediment from the shelf or hemipelagic sediment veneers their margins. 8. Resolve the morphology of the toe of the volcanoes, and collect mulitbeam sonar data on one or more of the small seamounts that have been detected adjacent to the Lord Howe volcano; this will clarify the nature of sediments and sedimentary deposits at the toe, and provide insights into the origin and benthic habitats of previously unknown seamounts. 9. Deploy sea-surface drifters to track ocean currents along the eastern margin of Australia. Drifters are expendable (not recovered) and can be deployed while underway. |
| SS 06/2008 [details] |
Professor Colin D. Woodroffe (Wollongong University); Dr Brendan Brooke (GA) | Voyage Title: Morphology and Chronostratigraphy of fossil reefs around Lord Howe Island. Voyage Objectives: This research aims to extend our understanding of seamount habitats in the Tasman Sea, specifically mapping the bathymetry and substrate of environments around Lord Howe Island and Balls Pyramid. |
| FR 12/98 [details] |
C. Woodroffe (University of Wollongong) | Franklin cruise FR 12/98 was undertaken to study reef sedimentation and erosional development of volcanic islands at the southernmost latitudinal limit to reef growth in the south-west Pacific Ocean. Sampling was centred on two areas, Lord Howe Island and Middleton Reef. Sea-floor sedimment samples were collected by grab and piston cores. Seismic data were also collected and coral growth studied at Middleton Reef. Further sampling was carried out at Ball's Pyramid adjacent to Lord Howe Island. Bathymetric and current velocity data were collected throughout the voyage to provide geomorphological information and to relate to sediment distribution. |