Charlie Paull
Chief Scientist
MBARI
Charlie Paull has been a marine geologist and geochemical stratigrapher at MBARI since January 1999. The central theme of Charlie's work involves investigating the fluxes of fluids and gases through continental margins. Assessing the global distribution of gas hydrate and interstitial gas is a continuing interest as well as the development of new techniques to detect the presence of gas hydrate in marine sediments. Charlie's other ongoing work is focused on the geology associated with seafloor seepage sites, including investigating the deposits associated with chemosynthetic communities, determining the processes that occur at the methane-sulfate boundary, and understanding the origin of pockmarks and other potential seafloor fluid venting sites.
Bill Ussler
Senior Research Specialist
MBARI
During expeditions, Bill Ussler is primarily responsible for the operation of the custom-built, portable chemistry lab van which contains a complete analytical laboratory for the analysis of the fluids and gases contained in marine sediments. Along with colleague Charlie Paull, Bill studies how methane (natural gas) forms and moves within seafloor sediments.
Eve Lundsten
Research Technician
MBARI
Eve Lundsten works with Charlie Paull in the Continental Margins Lab. Eve's background is in hydrology but she uses her mapping skills, and some of her technical skills to help Charlie Paull understand the processes that are creating the features we see on the sea floor. One of her main responsibilities on this expedition will be running the GIS system. We use Arc GIS and our high resolution, AUV collected bathymetric maps to help direct our research to the precise location of interest on the sea floor. Eve will also help out with processing and cataloguing sediment samples and vibracores. Eve is very excited to participate in this cruise and is looking forward to many exciting discoveries.
Roberto Gwiazda
Research Specialist
MBARI
Roberto is a geochemist by training, and his interests lie at the intersection of marine geology and sediment and water chemistry. On this expedition, Roberto will be responsible for collection and analytical measurements of pore water chemistry on samples taken from sediment cores, and will participate in the collection and analysis of methane from gas vents on the seafloor.
Krystle Anderson
Research Assistant
MBARI
Krystle Anderson is a research assistant working for Charlie Paull in the Continental Margins Lab. Krystle's background is primarily in the acquisition and processing of seafloor mapping data. She came from CSUMB Seafloor Mapping Lab where she obtained her data processing and GIS skills. Krystle spends a majority of her time processing and creating high-resolution maps of multibeam data collected from the mapping AUV. The high-resolution maps Krystle helps create will then be used to aid navigation for the ROV to explore particular areas of interest. On this expedition Krystle will assist with running the GIS system, processing and cataloguing sediment samples and vibracores. This is Krystle's first research expedition with MBARI and she is very excited to be involved in this deep sea excursion.
Philip Barnes
Marine Geologist
National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research
New Zealand
Philip's specialist interests are in active margin plate boundary processes, including submarine neotectonics, sedimentary basins and sequences, and geohazards. He has undertaken research on subduction, thrust, strike-slip, and rift tectonic systems, sequence stratigraphy and sedimentation processes, submarine landslides, canyon systems, and fluid seepage. Recent initiatives have included the development of on-fault submarine paleoseismic techniques, earthquake source characterisation for national seismic hazard assessment, fluid seepage along the Hikurangi subduction margin, slip rate assessment on the offshore Alpine fault, and submarine canyon development in central and eastern New Zealand. Since the devastating February 2011 earthquakes in Christchurch City, he has been leading seismic reflection studies of active faulting as part of an urgent earthquake risk and recovery work program.
Mary McGann
U.S. Geological Survey
Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
Mary is a micropaleontologist/ biologist with the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center. Her interests focus on using microbiota (primarily foraminifera but also pollen) in climate, geohazards, sediment transport, and paleotsunami investigations, as well as in biomonitoring marine pollution sites and for AMS C-14 chronostratigraphy.
Brian Edwards
U.S. Geological Survey
Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center
Brian Edwards, a sedimentologist with the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, has more than 30 years of sea-going experience on 60-plus coring and geophysical cruises along the west coast of the United States and in high-latitude environments (the Ross Sea [Antarctica], the North Pacific Ocean, the Bering Sea, and the Arctic Ocean). Brian specializes in sedimentary processes and stratigraphy, integrating insights gleaned from seafloor rock and sediment samples with information from remote-mapping products, such as close-up photographs of the seafloor, high-resolution bathymetric maps, and seismic-reflection profiles. His recent studies have focused on how sediment moves from the land to the deep sea, processes controlling submarine landslides, saltwater intrusion into coastal aquifer systems, marine pollution, seafloor habitats, and the Cenozoic history of the Arctic Ocean.
Andreia Afonso
Task Group for Maritime Affairs
Portugal
Andreia Afonso has a degree in Marine Sciences from the Lusofona University where she has specialized in the field of Physical Oceanography. Since 2008, Andreia has been working within the former EMEPC (Task Group for the Extension of the Continental Shelf), now called EMAM (Task Group for the Maritime Affairs), where she received ROV pilot and engineer training and has integrated the 6000m rated ROV LUSO technical team. She has participated in five multidisciplinary missions, dominantly in the scope of the Continental Shelf Extension Project involving deep sea research. Andreia is very interested and motivated by the conceptualization, development and implementation of new sea technologies and tools. Apart from EMAM's ROV Team related tasks, she is now project coordinator at EMAM for the development of a modular buoy as a ground for the development of a near shore marine environmental monitoring observatory.
Saulwood Lin
Sediment Biogeochemist
Institute of Oceanography
National Taiwan University
Saulwood Lin is interested in diagenesis in sediments. He has been working on biogeochemical processes associated with gas hydrate and chemical weathering of small river drainage basins. In one ROV cruise he participated, he found a unique cold seep environment in the passive margin off Taiwan. To better understand gas seeps and chemosynthesis community, he joins the MBARI cruise for the purposes of learning ROV instrumentations, sampling and operation of ROV and AUV to facilitate Taiwan's gas hydrate research.