Author: Morgan Vervoort

WALDO – Where is ALl the gooD weather nOw?

25 November 2022

From Friday 18 November 2022, until Tuesday 29 November 2022, RV Belgica will be surveying various study areas across the southern North Sea. A team consisting of 6 scientists from the Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) and Ghent University set sail for a WALDO-dedicated cruise expedition!

An overview map of the RV Belgica 2022-30 “WALDO” project’s first study areas.

The survey started with acquiring geophysical data from ‘Area A’, located between the IJmuiden Ver and Hollandse Kust West windfarms, off the coast of the Netherlands. The EM304 multibeam system (MBES), the TOPAS PS18 parametric sub-bottom profiler and the multichannel Sparker reflection seismic system have been deployed. Following the completion of this grid, we continued our exploration targeting the next study site.

High-resolution multichannel Sparker seismic reflection system – Data collection aboard RV Belgica.

After a “bumpy” transit towards the north, we finally arrived in ‘Area B’, located in the Oyster Ground, close to Dogger Bank. The MBES and TOPAS systems have been used to collect bathymetric, backscatter and seismic data.

Example of marine seismic data acquisition display.
Example of the data collection process with the multibeam sonar.

Under rough sea conditions, we reached ‘Area C’ to continue the survey with the MBES and TOPAS systems. Unfortunately, the bad weather conditions didn’t allow us to complete the mapping as planned. So now, we are off to carry on our survey to the southern part of the North Sea!

QRA Postgraduate Symposium 2022

The 27th annual Postgraduate Symposium was organized by the Quaternary Research Association and hosted by Sheffield Hallam University on the theme: ‘Postgraduate Research within Quaternary Science’.

2nd and 9th September 2022

Our first North Sea survey!

On the 15th of September, a two-project combined survey started, including a first survey for the WALDO-project. In this survey we aimed to visit multiple sites: the Brown Bank and Axial Channel area and from the Axial Channel towards the Outer Silver Pit area. Unfortunately due to bad weather the first couple of days, the survey planning had to change a lot. But, we’re happy about the first TOPAS and multi-channel sparker data we already achieved in the Axial Channel. Furthermore, we already managed to take 10 vibrocores of more then 2m (with a maximum of 2.65m!).

Today is the 22th of September and we are planning to take a few more cores in the Axial Channel. An hopefully, on the last days we will complete our TOPAS-grid/sparker-grid on the Axial Channel and TOPAS-grid towards the Outer Silver Pit. And hopefully, the weather stays as good as yesterday!

First look at the TOPAS data from the Axial Channel.
The vibrocore at sunset.
Sunrise on Wednesday.
The first deployment of the multichannel sparker system.

North Atlantic Research Expedition

Belgica Survey 2022-18

The DynaMOD II campaign to the eastern slope of the Porcupine Seabight in the north Atlantic (offshore Ireland) set sail from 2-18 August 2022 aboard the RV Belgica. The research cruise focused on the increase of bottom current intensity in the presence of a seabed with complex topography, within the Belgica Mound Province and the Gollum Channel System. WALDO’s two PhD researchers, Despina Kyriakoudi (VLIZ & UGent) and Morgan Vervoort (UGent) took part in this expedition.

Check the daily updates and progress on the expedition blog: https://geologieugent.wordpress.com/rv-belgica-dynamod-ii/