Seafloor to Seabirds in the Coral Sea

Far offshore Queensland Australia, in the Coral Sea Marine Park, is a seafloor full of clues for understanding the complex geologic history of the Australia and the submerged Zealandia continent. The Seafloor to Seabirds expedition will focus mapping efforts on the Kenn Plateau, a piece of continental crust also known as a microcontinent. The Kenn … Continued

Pinging in the New Year: Mapping the Tasman and Coral Seas

Schmidt Ocean Institute in partnership with The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030, alongside collaborating researchers from Australia, will bring in the New Year on a mission-- mapping significant areas of the seafloor of the Tasman and Coral Seas, offshore Queensland, Australia. The expedition is a part of the global effort to map the seabed in its … Continued

Ice Age Geology of the Great Barrier Reef

The upper continental slope and shelf edge of the southern Great Barrier Reef is largely unknown and poorly mapped. After a successful expedition mapping the northern Great Barrier Reef, R/V Falkor will traverse to the southern reaches of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. The goal of the expedition is to explore ancient undersea … Continued

Northern Depths of the Great Barrier Reef

The Cape York Peninsula lies in the far northern Great Barrier Reef (GBR) Marine Park. The peninsula is one of the most isolated regions of the Australian continent and little is known about what lies in the offshore deeper waters. Scientists consider these deeper waters to be a frontier area of the GBR. Sparse information … Continued

Seamounts, Canyons & Reefs of the Coral Sea

As ocean temperatures increase, a pressing global challenge in marine science is to better understand the distribution and characteristics of the critical habitats that support mesophotic and deep-water coral communities. Following the previous Visioning the Coral Sea Marine Park expedition, a similar team of scientists led by Drs. Brendan Brooke, Geoscience Australia, Robin Beaman, James Cook University, … Continued

Visioning the Coral Sea Marine Park

Within Australia’s largest marine reserve, the recently established Coral Sea Marine Park, lies the Queensland Plateau, one of the world’s largest continental margin plateaus at nearly 300,000 square kilometers. The plateau contains 30 large coral atolls including the famed Osprey Reef, Lihou Reef, and Diamond Islets. Here a wide variety of reef systems range from … Continued

Reconstructing Ritter

The 1888 Ritter Island (Papua New Guinea) landslide was the largest historical volcanic-island landslide ever recorded and generated a devastating regional tsunami. Dr. Sebastian Watt (University of Birmingham) and his international team of researchers are joining R/V Falkor to reconstruct in detail the dynamics of the Ritter landslide event while also documenting the re-establishment of … Continued

Australian Mesophotic Coral Examination

The North West Shelf of Australia is home to unique coral ecosystems: Mesophotic Coral Ecosystems (MCEs). While the waters of Australia are famous for shallower coral systems such as the Great Barrier Reef, MCEs there (and around the globe) remain largely unknown and undocumented. MCEs exist at depths between 30-150m, and recently their study has … Continued

Illuminating Biodiversity of the Ningaloo Canyons

Very few deep sea areas both in and outside of Australia have been well-sampled over large spatial and temporal scales, and a large number of species still remain undiscovered and unnamed. Following the first explorations of Bremer Bay and Perth Canyon, Falkor will bring ROV SuBastian to the Ningaloo Canyons. Dr. Nerida Wilson, of the … Continued

The Great Australian Deep-Sea Coral and Canyon Adventure

Rising water temperatures and increasing carbon dioxide concentrations remain among the greatest threats to ocean ecosystems globally. This warming trend and associated ocean acidification poses a unique threat to species that use calcium carbonate to build their shells or skeletons, such as corals. While significant research has been dedicated to examining the effects of changing … Continued