RV Investigator Voyage Summary: HEOBI - Heard Earth-Ocean-Biosphere Interactions

• Main Author: Coffin, MF
• Format: Report
• Language: English
• Published: Marine National Facility; CSIRO 2016
• Subjects: Earth Sciences; Geology; Marine Geoscience; Southern Ocean; Kerguelen; Heard; McDonald Islands
• Online Access: http://ecite.utas.edu.au/111147

Iron supply limits oceanic primary production in the Southern Ocean as well as elsewhere in theglobal ocean. We aim to test the hypothesis that hydrothermal activity driven by active submarinemagmatism fertilises surface waters with iron, thereby enhancing biological productivity. Heardand McDonald islands on the Kerguelen Plateau are among the worlds most active hotspotvolcanoes, and are type examples sourced from a particular geochemical component in the Earthsmantle (enriched mantle 1, or EM1). Existing data indicate that fields of submarine volcanoesextend for several hundred kilometres away from the islands.