We left few days ago and, that is it, work has begun! We arrived on the study area on July 18th. Shifts were assigned in groups of 2 to regularly record information about the vessel’s position, the depth measured by the magnetometer and any manipulations in progress. Fabio works with…
The main aim of this cruise is to dive to the bottom of the ocean at the Romanche transform intersection with the Mid Atlantic Ridge to make observations of the tectonic structures and collect rocks. We do this with the Nautile, the manned submersible owned by Ifremer, the French Research…
The day to embark on the ship has finally arrived and on the 12th of July the agent picked up the members of the scientific team and headed to Porto Grande, where the Pourquoipas? was docked. The ship is super-impressive, very big (much bigger than in the picture), 7 floors…
We arrived in Mindelo in the island of Sao Vicente, one of the 10 volcanic islands that form the archipelago of Cape Verde in the Central Atlantic and the hometown of Cesaria Evora for the morna enthusiasts. We will embark on the Pourquoi pas? tomorrow morning and sail on the…
The SMARTIES project (aka Smooth regions at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge Transform-Intersections under Extreme thermal gradientS) is sailing off today! We are leaving this afternoon to fly to the island of Mindelo where we will embark on the French research vessel “Pourquoi pas?” (indeed: why not!). We will be at sea…