Sentry and it’s wave glider were launched at daybreak and are still surveying. We retrieve Sentry at 6am this morning (in about 4 hours) and we are excitingly awaiting the mapping treasures it will bring us. This and the multi beam mapping are the key to interpreting the structure and tectonics of the region.
The Wave Glider- allows the ship to travel further away from Sentry to work (photo- Jürgen Koepke)
Since Sentry has been mapping, we’ve carried out two dredges in the axial valley. The first, dredge 7, brought back about 100-200 variably sized (from pebbles to boulders) pieces of basalt. So very little peridotite as yet.
But, fingers crossed, we have two more dredges tomorrow before the weather worsens; the first of which will be on an anomalous dome which we are hunching is made of peridotite.
That’s more like it!- A full dredge
What are we going to do with all these (basalts)??!
