We carried out underway geophysical survey in the transit of the JAMSTEC R/V
Mirai MR08-06 Leg-1. The cruise was an unprecedented opportunity to collect data in regions of the Pacific Ocean where it has sparsely been surveyed. Our multibeam bathymetric and shipboard gravity survey track crossed over the Pacific, the Antarctic, and the Nazca plates, and covered lithospheric ages varying from zero to 150 Ma. The survey revealed kilometer-sized fine-scale structures of seafloor fabrics; i.e. abyssal hills and fracture zones, and distribution of seamounts or knolls. These are not detectable in satellite altimetry data only. As well as contributing to the world's seafloor mapping, our survey results also show valuable evidence towards the plate tectonic reconstruction and help us look into the oceanic lithosphere formation and evolution, since the directions of tectonic stress and seafloor spreading mode are the major factors that can affect the morphology of lineated abyssal hills, etc.
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