The oldest vessel in U.S. academic fleet returns to San Diego after a 10-month expedition, 10news.com reports.
The research vessel Melville went on 11 research voyages during its deployment. The expedition covered climate studies in the remote South Pacific, water mass studies in Africa and studies at the site of a massive 2010 earthquake off Chile.
Bruce Applegate, the associate director of Scripps Oceanography, stated that they deployed instruments on the ocean floor to measure ground motion.
Also included in the expedition was geology and plate tectonics of the Panama Basin research, organisms in the Amazon River study, mapping the sea floor of the southern Atlantic Ocean and examining the Agulhas Current in the Indian Ocean.
The research vessel Melville has been operated by Scripps Oceanography for 41 years. It is owned by the Navy.
The vessel is preparing for another voyage on June 30 with Scripps graduate students studying waters off the San Diego coast.
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Subsea World News Staff , June 22, 2012