Xinhua News Agency reporter Wang Libin.
The "Shenhai No. 1", which is carrying out the 83rd voyage of the Chinese Ocean, has arrived in the hydrothermal area of the South Atlantic to carry out operations, and this voyage is expected to carry out 46 dives of the "Jiaolong" to carry out relevant ocean biological environment investigations.
On February 10, this reporter learned from the China Ocean Affairs Administration that after dozens of days of sailing, the "Shenhai No. 1" ship has crossed the Indian Ocean and arrived in the hydrothermal zone of the South Atlantic to carry out operations. As of February 7, 8 dives of Jiaolong have been successfully completed and multi-station temperature-salt-depth exploration.
The 83rd voyage "Jiaolong" was deployed. Courtesy of the China Ocean Affairs Administration.
According to reports, the China Ocean 83 voyage set sail from Qingdao, Shandong Province on December 17, 2023, and the voyage was carried out by the "Shenhai No. 1" ship and the "Jiaolong" manned submersible, and is scheduled to return to Qingdao in May 2024. This voyage is expected to carry out 46 dives of the "Jiaolong", and use a variety of conventional environmental survey equipment to carry out biological environment investigation.
It is reported that on January 27, the "Jiaolong" manned submersible completed the first dive in the South Atlantic, with a depth of 3,350 meters, successfully discovered high-temperature active black chimney groups and a large number of hydrothermal organisms, successfully implemented microbial in-situ enrichment, hydrothermal area environmental chemical parameter measurement operations, and obtained samples of typical hydrothermal organisms such as blind shrimp and deep-sea mussels and sulfide chimneys.
This voyage is composed of 81 scientific expedition members and crews from 19 units, including the Institute of Oceanography under the Ministry of Natural Resources, the relevant research institutes of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the relevant universities of the Ministry of Education. This voyage focuses on exploring the relationship between the biodiversity of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge and typical topography, hydrothermal biogeographic zoning, biological connectivity and other scientific issues, which will improve China's scientific understanding of the environment of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge hydrothermal area.