JAMSTEC Presents Surveys at Rio Grande Rise and Sao Paulo Ridge Off Brazil

In an effort to study a variety of marine organisms which live and have evolved in extreme environments, the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), led by President Asahiko Taira, has begun a project called QUELLE2013 in January 2013, using the manned research submersible SHINKAI 6500 and its support vessel YOKOSUKA.

QUELLE2013 is a scientific voyage for global-scale surveys and research on ecosystems in hydrothermal vent areas and other unique and extreme environments in the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

In this report, the just-completed surveys at the Rio Grande Rise*1 and the Sao Paulo Ridge*2 off Brazil, which will be followed by a survey at the Sao Paulo Plateau, are presented.

Objectives of surveys at Rio Grande Rise and Sao Paulo Ridge off Brazil

This project is part of JAMSTEC’s comprehensive studies on chemosynthetic and other marine organisms living in the deep sea, below the sea floor, and in other extreme environments as well as such extreme environments themselves. The objectives of this project are to conduct field surveys on unique marine environments shaped by vast submarine topography and organisms living in such environments, and to find out exactly what is going on, unravel the correlation between organisms and their habitats, and learn how such unique environments were created. The unique marine environments include over-5,000-meter-high extremely-steep topography, a complex environment where deep-sea currents meet from both the Antarctic and the North Atlantic oceans, and areas with outcrops of mantle-derived rocks.

SHINKAI 6500 dived in the South Atlantic Ocean for the first time.

Future schedules

May 6 to 8 YOKOSUKA and SHINKAI 6500 are open to the public in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

May 11 to 22 Surveys are conducted at the Sao Paulo Plateau off Brazil.

May 25 to 27 YOKOSUKA and SHINKAI 6500 are open to the public in Santos, Brazil.

A symposium and other events are held in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Mid-June to early-July Surveys are conducted near the Cayman Islands, a British territory in the Caribbean Sea.

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Press Release, May 10, 2013