9812638 Terray This Small Grants for Exploratory Research (SGER) project involves a feasibility study of making measurements of currents in a seafloor hydrothermal vent field using a downward-looking, broadband acoustic Doppler current profiler (ADCP) mounted on the JASON remotely-operated vehicle. The ADCP will map the large scale currents with respect to the physical structure of the vent field. Such measurements can be used in conjunction with thermistor moorings to estimate the advective heat flux. Another objective is to develop a rough index of fluid temperature based on the ping-to-ping correlation of the Doppler return. If successful, this work will add an important hydrodynamic measurement to the techniques needed to characterize the heat output of vent fields.
