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Comments
We are now well into the main CASO (Climate of the Antarctic and Southern Ocean) leg of the voyage. We will spend 6.3 days (oceanographers can be very precise) using the CTD to sample the water column from 31 sites in a large loop that will take us about 150 Nm northwards from the shelf break and then east for a similar distance before heading south again to return to the shelf break. At our current location the water is about 3600 m deep and each CTD cast is taking about two and half hours. During this circuit we will sample three canyon systems discovered using multi-beam sea-bed imagery obtained by US and Italian survey vessels. These canyons are thought to drain the cold dense Antarctic bottom water formed in the Mertz Polynya. Regards, Martin and Sarah.
Map
A map showing Australia and Antarctica. The map shows the journey of one voyage that has occured in the season, with each route highlighted in a distinct colour.