New Zealand American Submarine Ring of Fire 2007 Explorers
Edward T. Baker
Supervisory Oceanographer
NOAA Vents Program
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory – Seattle, Washington
Ed Baker, a veteran of more than 60 research cruises, was educated at the University of Notre Dame and the University of Washington, where he is an affiliate professor in the Department of Oceanography. Currently a supervisory oceanographer at the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL), he joined NOAA in 1975. Dr. Baker has investigated deep-sea processes, especially hydrothermal vents and submarine canyons, throughout the Pacific Ocean.
Bryan W. Davy
Marine Geophysicist
Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Bryan Davy is involved in most aspects of regional marine, inshore, and freshwater geophysics in the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone (NZ EEZ), Antarctica, and the shallow inshore, harbor, and lake environments. Dr. Davy is a leading advisor on New Zealand’s UNCLOS continental shelf delineation, having been involved in offshore surveying for the submission, submission preparation, and (currently) submission delivery to the United Nations. He has been a leading researcher on marine geophysical surveys (generally collecting seismic reflection/refraction, swath bathymetry, gravity and magnetic data) both on New Zealand vessels and collaborative surveys (on, for example, the research vessel L’Atalante, R/V Sonne, R/V NB Palmer), which have focused on understanding the Mesozoic evolution of New Zealand and the break-up of Gondwana. Davy has also been active in small boat surveying (seismic, swath, gravity, and magnetic), particularly examining the volcanic collapse caldera structures within lakes, such as Lake Taupo and Lake Tarawera of the New Zealand central volcanic region.
Cornel E.J. de Ronde
Geologist
Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Cornel de Ronde is a principal scientist at the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS Science). He leads the Offshore Minerals part of the Economic Growth for New Zealand through Mineral Wealth program. The offshore minerals research has largely concentrated on sea-floor hydrothermal vents associated with submarine arc volcanoes of the Kermadec Arc, northeast of New Zealand. This group was funded in late 2004 to continue their work which started in 1997. Since then, de Ronde and colleagues at GNS, NOAA, the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), and elsewhere, have surveyed the entire Kermadec Arc (about 1,300 km) and beyond into international and Tongan territorial waters, which they completed in September/October 2004. They have surveyed around 35 major volcanoes and 8 smaller volcanic edifices. In October/November 2004, de Ronde and colleagues teamed up with Japanese scientists and dove for the first time anywhere along the arc, on Brothers Volcano, with the JAMSTEC submersible Shinkai 6500. Then in April/May 2005, de Ronde and colleagues completed 23 dives on 9 different volcanoes using the submersible Pisces V as part of the New Zealand American Submarine Ring of Fire expedition. De Ronde and colleagues have also participated on research cruises to map the Tofua (Tonga), Tabar-Lihir-Tanga-Feni (Papua New Guinea) and Mariana (Guam) arcs, and the Ghizo Ridge (Solomon Islands) for submarine hydrothermal venting.
Bob Embley
[ 
OceanAGE interview ]
Chief Scientist – New Zealand American Submarine Ring of Fire 2007
Geophysicist
NOAA Vents Program
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory – Newport, Oregon
Dr. Embley received a PhD in marine geology and geophysics from Lamont Doherty Geological (now Earth) Observatory in 1975 and came to NOAA in 1979. He has been with NOAA's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Newport, Oregon, and has served as team leader for marine geology in the NOAA Vents Program. His more than 80 scientific publications include studies of a wide range of deep-sea features, including submarine canyons, sediment slides, fracture zones, the mid-ocean ridge, and most recently, intraoceanic arc volcanoes. He has participated in more than 50 oceanographic expeditions in the Atlantic, Pacific, and Antarctic oceans over 39 years, and has experience with deep-towed cameras, sidescan sonars, manned submersibles, and remotely operated vehicles. He has participated in all of the Submarine Ring of Fire expeditions since 2002 and served as chief scientist on the Submarine Ring of Fire expedition in 2004 to the Mariana Arc.
Kevin Faure
Geochemist
Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Kevin Faure is a senior scientist and leads the Environmental Isotopes Section within the National Isotope Centre at the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS Science). Primarily a stable isotope geochemist specializing in ore deposit studies, he also has a keen interest in applying stable isotope geochemistry to a wide range of earth science topics. He has participated in all three previous NZAPLUME (New Zealand-NOAA) cruises along the Kermadec Arc. Faure's responsibilities are mainly associated with conductivity-temperature-depth operations, in particular measuring dissolved methane concentration in the water column. The sea-going methane analyzer (SEAMAS) was successfully deployed on the last NZAPLUME III voyage and also on other research cruises exploring for gas hydrates along the east coast of New Zealand. SEAMAS rapidly analyses water samples (about 4 minutes/sample) and has a lower limit of determination of 0.5 nM methane.
Ron
Greene
Research Assistant
Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies Program
Oregon State University
NOAA Vents Program
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory – Newport, Oregon
Ron Greene has been part of the NOAA Vents chemistry group working out of Newport, Oregon, for 14 years. A research technician at Oregon State University, Greene earned his bachelor's degree in geological oceanography from the University of Washington. He specializes in the collection and processing of seawater samples for helium, along with the data analysis. The degree of mantle enrichment of helium isotopes 3He and 4He, found in the seawater samples, is determined using a high vacuum extraction lab and an extremely sensitive mass spectrometer in Newport. He enjoys shipboard life as he used to fish commercially and spent time in the Navy.
Michael Hacking
Video Documentary
Gibson International
Wellington New Zealand
Mike Hacking works for Gibson International, a multi-media company based in Wellington, New Zealand and has been directing and writing documentaries for 20 years. He's worked in countries such as Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and France, and his programs have been broadcast widely to international audiences. As part of the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS) team, he'll be recording some of the expedition's activities for documentary purposes and for exhibition in the National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. He is particularly excited by the opportunity he been given to capture high-definition video of the Kermadec Arc volcanoes from the expedition's new remotely operated vehicle.
Matt Leybourne
Research Scientist
Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences
Lower Hutt, New Zealand
Matt Leybourne is a research scientist at the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS Science), primarily investigating vent fluid and hydrothermal plume geochemistry. He has a BSc from Waikato University, an MS. from Acadia University (petrology of mid-ocean ridge basalts), and a PhD from the University of Ottawa (groundwater-ore deposit interaction). Leybourne is a new addition to the GNS offshore team; his previous research has focused on aqueous geochemistry with a view to better understanding water-rock interaction, mobility and transport of metals and metalloids, and groundwater-surface water interactions. His research involves fieldwork (and seawork), laboratory analyses (including major and trace elements, and stable [Se, O, H, S, C, B] and radiogenic [Sr, Nd, Pb, tritium] isotopes), and geochemical modeling. Much of Leybourne's research has focused on groundwater systems (especially those around undisturbed ore deposits), but also includes the petrology and geochemistry of rocks that make up the aquifers under investigation.
Susan Merle
Senior Research Assistant
Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies Program
Oregon State University
NOAA Vents Program
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Susan Merle is a senior research assistant with Oregon State University/NOAA Vents, working at Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, for the past 10 years. She graduated from the University of Washington with a BS in oceanography, emphasizing marine geology and geophysics. Previous to her work with the Vents program, she worked for five years in the sea-floor survey industry. Merle specializes in sea-floor data acquisition, processing, analysis, and two- and three-dimensional rendering of ocean features and their geological interpretation. She manages large data sets that include bathymetry, sidescan/backscatter, sea-floor sample information, and real-time logging system data collected by a variety of sea-floor remote sensing systems, formatting the data for incorporation in ArcGIS, GMT/MBSystem, Fledermaus and various other programs for further analysis. The Web coordinator on five previous Ocean Explorer (OE) Submarine Ring of Fire expeditions (from 2002 to 2006), she will resume that role for OE New Zealand American Submarine Ring of Fire 2007.
Joseph Resing
Chemical Oceanographer
Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and the Ocean
University of Washington
NOAA Vents Program
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Joe Resing is a research scientist at the Joint Institute for the Study of the Atmosphere and the Ocean (JISAO), a cooperative institute between the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and the University of Washington (UW). He is an affiliate assistant professor of chemical oceanography at the UW School of Oceanography. Resing studied chemistry at DePaul University and earned his master's and doctorate in chemical oceanography at the University of Hawaii. He has participated in over 20 major oceanographic expeditions and has spent more than a year's worth of days at sea.
Sharon Walker
Oceanographer
NOAA Vents Program
Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
Sharon Walker has been an oceanographer at NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory (PMEL) in Seattle, Washington, since 1979, and a member of the NOAA Vents program since it began in 1984. Walker specializes in the development of methods and instrumentation for the detection, monitoring, and mapping of hydrothermal plumes, including the PMEL miniature autonomous plume recorder (MAPR). She has participated in numerous research expeditions to mid-ocean ridges and submarine arc volcanoes. During this expedition, she will collect hydrographic and optical data with the conductivity (CTD) instrumentation, and with MAPRs during other operations.
Autonomous Benthic Explorer (ABE) AUV Team
Andrew Billings
Engineering Assistant III
Applied Ocean Physics and Engineering
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Alan Duester
Electrical Engineer
Deep Submergence Laboratory
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Al Duester is an electrical engineer at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he has concentrated on autonomous vehicles for the majority of the 26 years he's been there. He's also worked on a variety of other instrumentation. He specializes in PC board design, and electromechanical packaging of vehicle subsystems. . . . and lately, keeping ABE functioning at sea.
Dana Yoerger
ABE Team Leader/Associate Scientist
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Woods Hole, Massachusetts
Dana Yoerger received BS, MS, and PhD degrees in mechanical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). He is currently an associate scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), where he designs and implements robotic control systems for telerobotic and autonomous underwater vehicles. He supervises the thesis research of students enrolled in the WHOI/MIT joint program in oceanographic engineering, in the areas of control, robotics, and design. Yoerger has gone to sea on over 50 oceanographic expeditions, including the 1985 Titanic discovery cruise. He was a member of the team that developed the telerobotic control system for the Jason remotely operated vehicle, and has served as Jason navigator on many cruises. He has been to the deep sea-floor six times in the deep submergence vehicle Alvin. For operations of the fully autonomous ABE, his responsibilities include science liaison, control system design and implementation, mission programming and testing, and generation of data products. New developments include Sentry, a successor to ABE, and Nereus, a hybrid vehicle that will be used as both and autonomous and teleoperated vehicle at depths to 11,000 meters. Yoerger has also participated in a number of education and outreach programs featuring deep submergence technology and sea floor exploration. He is a member of WHOI's Deep Submergence Laboratory (DSL), which was founded by Dr. Robert Ballard.
IFM-GEOMAR Quest 7 ROV Team
Colin Devey – Expedition Chief Scientist
Thomas Kuhn – ROV Chief Pilot
Martin Pieper – ROV Engineer (hydraulics, mechanics)
Claus Hinz – ROV Engineer (software)
Karsten Witkiewicz – ROV Engineer (electronics)
Arne Meier – ROV Technician (winch)
Hannes Huusmann – ROV Technician (video)
Greg Engemann – Schilling Robotics Technician/Supervisor
Furtauer Henrik – Schilling Robotics Technician/Supervisor
Andrew Foster – Schilling Robotics Technician/Supervisor
Erik Labahn – ROV Engineer
Robert Surma – ROV Engineer
Sara Yierul – TV Team (after personnel transfer)
Thomas Kutschker – TV Team (after personnel transfer)
