News Release

Austin, TX – The National Science Foundation has invited James Austin, a senior research scientist at The University of Texas Institute for Geophysics (UTIG), to lead sea trials to test the enhanced capability of the U.S. Research Vessel Icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer.  The Palmer, which is owned and operated by Edison-Chouest of Louisiana, is under long-term contract to the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs (OPP) for support of scientific research in Antarctica.

During a cruise between Port Fourchon, Lousiania, and Panama  (September 25 - October 5), Austin will lead a team of 30 people, including representatives from NSF/Office of Polar Programs, Edison-Chouest, and Raytheon Polar Services Corporation (a consortium composed of Raytheon and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, under a long-term contract to NSF/OPP to provide technical support to scientific research in Antarctica) to conduct two phases of sea trials of recently deployed instruments. During the first phase in the northern Gulf of Mexico, a variety of hydrographic/physical oceanographic capabilities will be tested, including acoustic Doppler current profilers. These sophisticated instruments measure ocean current velocities and directions using sound. They are used to study ocean currents for climate-change. 

The second phase of sea trials will be dedicated to testing a variety of geophysical measurement capabilities - multi-beam swath bathymetric profiling (hull-mounted), and medium- and high-resolution seismic reflection profiling, using multiple compressed-air sound sources in the international waters of the Caribbean Sea en route to Panama. James Dolan, a senior systems analyst at UTIG, will participate in the sea trials to provide technical assistance in the area of synchronizing geophysical measurement capabilities to automated computer-control and precision (GPS) navigational inputs. 

"These trials", said Austin, " will help to provide the Palmer with an augmented and diversified multi-disciplinary research profile, which, when combined with her icebreaking capability, will give the U.S. a unique marine research asset at the doorstep of the world's last continental frontier"

The Palmer has two primary purposes: logistics support for U.S. bases in the Antarctic (ferrying of supplies and personnel) and research. The latter takes place on a broad front and includes the study of ice dynamics and atmospheric chemistry to learn more about short- and long-term climate change; physical oceanography to study ocean currents for climate-change, marine geology and geophysics to study plate tectonics and the morphology of the Antarctic continental margin and slope; and biology (fisheries studies, tracking of mammalian populations [whales, seals]).

Earlier this year, Austin led a team of UTIG researchers on an NSF (OPP)-sponsored marine geophysical cruise on the Palmer to Antarctica. The goal of the cruise was to use UTIG's suite of ocean bottom seismographs in a seismic refraction experiment to investigate geologic structures in the Bransfield Strait, a relatively young rift system offshore the Antarctic Peninsula. Single-channel seismic reflection, magnetic, and bathymetric data were also collected. The UTIG scientists believe that basins similar to the Bransfield Strait existed along the entire Pacific margin (now western South America/West Antarctica) of the supercontinent known as Gondwanaland some 130-200 million years ago. Approximately 100 million years ago, deformation of these basins initiated uplift of the Andes. "By studying the deep structure and evolution of Bransfield Strait, UTIG scientists hope to understand more fully the early evolution of this globally important mountain chain, as well as the break-up of the supercontinent that accompanied it", explained Austin. He added, "UTIG scientists are particularly interested in understanding the tectonic history of the Antarctic continent in a global framework".  A second geophysical cruise on board the Palmer to the Bransfield Strait is planned for October -November of this year.