Study will include experts in hydrothermal geochemistry, trace element chemistry, physical oceanography, and biology.
An international team of 29 researchers will plough Pacific waters between Nouméa and the Tonga volcanic arc from 1 November to 5 December 2019 aboard L’Atalante, an oceanographic research vessel. The aim of this campaign, dubbed the TONGA Project, is to study the effects that shallow submarine volcanoes have on marine life.
Coordinated by two women researchers from the Oceanographic Laboratory of the Institut de la Mer de Villefranche (CNRS / Sorbonne University) and the Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography (CNRS / IRD / Aix-Marseille University / University of Toulon), the TONGA Project brings together nearly a hundred scientists from 14 French laboratories in mainland France and New Caledonia and from six international universities—in Australia, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, the UAE, and the US.
On board L’Atalante, which belongs to the French oceanographic research fleet operated by IFREMER, 29 researchers will navigate the waters between Nouméa and the Tonga volcanic arc for five weeks. Their goals are to closely study (1) how fluids released by submarine volcanoes, rich in trace elements that can be life-sustaining or toxic, effect the microalgae living in the oceanic surface waters and (2) the ocean’s capacity for sequestration of atmospheric CO2.
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