Deepwater Exploration of Kingman Reef, Palmyra Atoll, and Jarvis Island: GEOLOGICAL AND BIOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES FROM THE US LINE ISLANDS

摘要

In June and July 2019, E/V Nautilus explored the two easternmost units of the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument (PRIMNM), the Kingman Reef and Palmyra Atoll unit, and the Jarvis Island unit.This expedition followed an initial survey in 2017 (Bohnenstiehl et al., 2018) as a part of the NOAA CAPSTONE program (Kennedy et al., 2019). While previous expeditions provided brief glimpses into the nature of geological and biological aspects of the deep-sea environment, this expedition leveraged previous mapping and exploration dives in ordpr to maximizebottom time and sampling effort at specific sites within the units. In total, 28,340 km2 of seafloor were mapped. During high-seas transits, six ocean wave buoys and one small sailboat drifter (part of the Educational Passages program) were deployed (Figure 1).