D346 Information
D346 was a repeat of the 24°N North Atlantic hydrographic section that had previously been occupied in 1992 by Spain, 1998 by the USA and 2004 by Discovery Cruise 279, and was conducted onboard the royal research vessel RRS Discovery.
The scientific party for D346 came from the following institutions; National Oceanography Centre Southampton (NOCS), University of East Anglia (UEA), and Oxford University.
Below are a selection of maps showing the positions of the sampling stations. Click these images to enlarge.
Full basin scale map
The Western Boundary of the North Atlantic
The Kane Fracture Zone
The Eastern Boundary of the North Atlantic
Cruise D346 began in Freeport, Bahamas on the 5th March 2010. The scientific teams had to fly out on New years Day 2010 in order to mobilise the ship and prepare the laboratories.
One hundred and thirty five, 24-bottle rosette CTD-O (Conductivity-Temperature-Depth-Oxygen) stations, including two bottle blank stations (designated stations 200 and 202), were occupied during D346 (see above figure).
Station 1 was a test station, and stations 2-13 comprised a transect across the Florida Straits in order to obtain samples from the Gulf Stream.
Stations 14-135 comprised the main section. Across the mid-ocean ridge, samples were drawn from within the Kane Fracture Zone.
The cruise ended on the 19th February in Lisbon, Portugal.
For a cruise summary report and a cruise inventory for D346 visit the BODC (British Oceanographic Data Centre) website.
The full D346 cruise report will soon be availble on the Southampton university eprints site. A link to the cruise reports will be created on this page once the report has been submitted.
Site last updated 09:38, 14 September 2010
