Data Trawler - Project details

This voyage will deploy the seismic reflection profiling system together with the multibeam sonar and sub- bottom profiling systems to map specific features of interest present on the continental slope and abyssal plain offshore the SEACM between Green Cape (Victoria – New South Wales Border) and the northern tip of Fraser Island (South-East Queensland). These mapping and profiling results will be used in conjunction with earlier survey results to inform the selection of appropriate core and dredge sites which will be sampled using the Jumbo Coring System, Box Dredges, and/or the Smith-MacIntrye Grab as is appropriate.

The primary objective of this voyage is to locate and sample deeper-water features that were beyond the operational ‘reach’ of the RV Southern Surveyor’s facilities and equipment. The earlier voyages investigating the marine geology of the region were not able to efficiently map or sample the lower slope, deep canyons, and abyssal plain features that represent the sites where upper-slope and mid-slope landslide materials are thought to be deposited. Included in this objective is the ‘maximised acquisition’ of abyssal plain bathymetry between the toe of the continental slope and the line of Tasman Seamounts located to the north of Port Macquarie.

The secondary objective is to identify, map, and sample continental-shelf-edge coastal features suspected to have delivered sediment to the upper-continental slope and canyon heads when sea-levels were lowered during the many Pliocene and Pleistocene glacial maxima. These features are thought to be a critical component of the “source-to-sink” sediment pathway that influences continental slope depositional and erosional processes.