Category: Expedition Cruises

RV Belgica 2022/30 Campaign – WALDO

The first official research cruise of the WALDO Project has been conducted from Friday 18 November 2022 until Wednesday 30 November 2022 aboard the new RV Belgica. The shipboard scientific team was consisting of 6 scientists and students from Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ) and Ghent University (RCMG, Dept. of Geology).

The new RV Belgica before sailing.
The shipboard scientific team of the ‘WALDO’ survey 2022/30.

The WALDO project aims to test the hypothesis that proglacial lakes were important landscape features in the southern North Sea during the last three Quaternary glaciations. To achieve that the project focused on the acquisition of high-resolution geophysical data in several locations across the southern North Sea.

Track plot of survey 2022-30.

The EM304 multibeam system (MBES), the TOPAS PS18 parametric sub-bottom profiler and the multichannel Sparker reflection seismic system have been deployed to acquire the backscatter, bathymetric and seismic data.

Deployment of the multichannel Sparker seismic reflection system.

During the survey, several geophysical data have been collected from the following regions in the southern North Sea: (1) study site located between the IJmuiden Ver and Hollandse Kust West windfarms (off the coast of the Netherlands), (2) study site immediately east of the Dogger Bank, (3) study site at Oyster Grounds, (4) study site in the Southern Bight (in Dutch waters).

Based on the analysis of the data derived by this first exploratory survey, a new survey will be planned with RV Belgica to collect data from specific areas of interest. In the next research cruise, we will focus on acquiring more high-resolution geophysical data, along with ground truthing via core collection using the VLIZ’s vibrocore. More info (e.g., operation plan, cruise report, etc.) about this campaign can be found here.