Galapagos Oceanographic Expedition ROV and Mapping Data

NOAA Ship OKEANOS EXPLORER conducted a two-leg expedition from San Diego to the Galapagos Spreading Center in 2011. The second leg, from July 7 to July 28, deployed the ROV Little Hercules and camera sled Seirios to investigate targets identified during initial mapping and CTD operations. The dataset, managed by NOAA NCEI, documents ROV dives, multibeam bathymetry, and conductivity-temperature-depth profiles.

Use Cases

• Analyzing multibeam mapping data to create high-resolution bathymetric maps of the seafloor.
• Using CTD cast data to study water column properties like temperature, salinity, and depth.
• Reviewing ROV Little Hercules and camera sled Seirios footage to identify and catalog biological habitats and geological features.
• Investigating targets identified during Leg 1 mapping for hydrothermal vent or seep activity.

Strengths

• Data collection employed specific, advanced tools including the ROV Little Hercules, camera sled Seirios, and multibeam sonar.
• Expedition provides a defined temporal snapshot of the region from July 6 to July 27, 2011.
• Cross-platform presence on NASA EarthData and Data.gov indicates recognized importance and curation.

Limitations

• Critical quantitative details are missing, including row counts, file sizes, and specific column names.
• Conflicting metadata exists: the 'last updated' date is listed as both 2011-07-27 and 2026-03-05 across sources.
• License information is not provided, restricting clarity on reuse permissions.

Provenance

Source

NOAA_NCEI

Collection Method

Collected during the EX1103 Leg 2 expedition on NOAA Ship OKEANOS EXPLORER using ROV, multibeam mapping, and CTD casts.

Time Range

2011-07-06 to 2011-07-27

Freshness

2026-03-05 23:03:32.589656

Geography

Galapagos Islands and North Pacific Ocean, specifically the Galapagos Spreading Center.