Early this morning we recovered Sentry and then awaited the first full Sentry map. And we were n’t disappointed; soon we were given an amazing map of lava flows and a faulted volcanic ridge.
Dredging continued both within, and at the margins of the axial valley. Dredge 9, across the inferred peridotite domes yielded a relatively large haul of mantle peridotite (mostly hazburgites and pyroxenites)! So this was a great success & and there were a lot of smiling scientists on board. As well as the need for the peridotites to answer the big cruise question- can mantle composition explain the Marion Rise?- the dredging of peridotite confirmed our ability to interpret the bathymetry in terms of rock type.
Serpentinised harzburgite ~ 19cm across
Dredge 10 returned basalt and glass, and dredge 11, just north of the peridotite dome is ongoing. We’ll return to multi beam surveying tomorrow as the weather worsens.
