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The Nautile

The Nautile is the inhabited deep-sea submarine operated by Ifremer. Able to reachdepths of  6000m, he made his first dive in 1984 and his first scientific mission the following year in the subduction zone off… 

The OBS experiment

23:27 on Wednesday, July 17 2019 : it’s time for the first OBS deployment ! During the SMARTIES cruise, 19 OBS (Ocean Bottom Seismometers) will be deployed. It is one of the first things to… 

The Pourquoi Pas?

The “Pourquoi Pas? » is the newest offshore vessel of the French Oceanographic Fleet. With a length of 107 meters, it can accommodate up to 40 scientists and is a platform of choice for the deployment… 

The scientific team and the planned operations

The scientific team on board is made up of researchers from different specialties and several research institutes. The two scientific co-chiefs of the cruise are Marcia Maia, geophysicist (CNRS-University of Brest, France) and Daniele Brunelli,… 

Departure day

July 13 at 8 AM the “Pourquoi Pas? leaves the wharf at Mindelo. This is the beginning of the SMARTIES adventure and there is a lot of excitement among the members of the scientific team.… 

First day on board

On the morning of the 12th, the agent of the ship picked us up at our hotels to take us on board. We arrived around 9 AM and got our cabins. Then we had to… 

Arrival at Mindelo

The Pourquoi Pas? arrived at Mindelo, the port of the island of Sao Vicente, in the Cape Verde archipelago on July 11 in the morning. The cruise is scheduled from July 12th to August 24th,…