The route of the vessel in the 53rd voyage
of RV Akademik Nikolaj Strakhov

The Geological Institute of RAS organized and conducted the 53rd voyage of the RV Akademik Nikolaj Strakhov from July 7 to August 15, 2022 in the North Atlantic. Port of exit - Kaliningrad, port of arrival - St. Petersburg.

The purpose of the expedition is to conduct comprehensive geological and geophysical studies of the ridge zone of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between the Charlie Gibbs and Maxwell faults to obtain new data on the geodynamic conditions for the formation of the oceanic crust, magmatic, tectonic and hydrothermal processes within the framework of the project "Intraplate tectonic, magmatic and hydrothermal-metamorphic phenomena in the axial part and on the flanks of the MAR in the North Atlantic”.

Head of the expedition - DSc, Senior Researcher A.A. Peive.

The expedition was attended by 15 people - 12 employees of the Geological Institute of RAS, 2 employees of the IO RAS, 1 student of the Kant Baltic Federal University.

The main tasks of the expedition:

1. Study the bottom topography by conducting a detailed bathymetric survey with the SeaBat 7150 multibeam echo sounder.
2. Obtain data on the features of the composition and structure of the oceanic crust in the zone of possible influence of the Azores plume of the deep mantle on the processes of axial accretion of the crust.
3. Investigate variations in the composition, geochemistry, and isotopy of basalts along and across the strike of the MAR rift valley between the Maxwell and Charlie Gibbs faults; to characterize the conditions and reasons for the diversity of settings for partial melting of the mantle and differentiation of primary melts along the spreading axis in an area with contrasting magmatism; to reveal the extent, nature and nature of mantle heterogeneity in this segment of the MAR.
4. Measure the anomalous magnetic field in the MAR segment between the Maxwell and Charlie Gibbs faults and adjacent areas of the ocean floor, determine the age of the ocean floor when identifying magnetic anomalies, and establish the nature of the anomalous magnetic field.
5. To study the distribution of the sedimentary cover and its properties in the ridge zone of the MAR between the Maxwell and Charlie Gibbs faults and the reflection of neotectonic deformations in its structure during seismoacoustic bottom profiling using the EdgeTech 3300 profiler.

Read more about the expedition on the Russian version of the site:
https://ocean.ru/index.php/vse-novosti/item/2537-53-j-rejs-nis-akademik-nikolaj-strakhov