Javier Escartín
@jescartin.bsky.social
CNRS Scientist @ Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris (Dept. of Geosciences). Marine geologist. Mapping the seafloor - including with robots (autonomous and remotely-operated). Interested in tectonics, volcanism, hydrothermal activity... mostly under water.
What is the global length of mid-ocean ridges? & the offset of transform faults or non-transforms? This paper @Earth-Science Reviews doi.org/10.1016/j.ea... & the associated MAPRIDGES database, present, analyze & provide the geometry of ridge segmentation globally doi.org/10.17882/99981
The news is out today in @nature.com ! The OHA-GEODAMS observatory had the incredible luck to capture a major seafloor spreading event back in 2024, just 2 months after its deployment. You can read all about it at: www.nature.com/articles/s41... Here’s how it unfolded 👇
Anatomy of a seafloor spreading event captured by in situ seismogeodesy - Nature
By combining hydroacoustic, direct-path ranging and bottom-pressure measurements, in situ observations of a rifting event at a segment of the Southeast Indian Ridge are reported, providing insight int...
nature.com
The #NODSSUM docked @ Brest Sun 28th. Exciting science: 19 Nautile dives to 4700 m, more than 100 barrels imaged, sediment, biota & water filter, coring, fish traps... peek to photos & videos for a week here: www.swisstransfer.com/d/22d399c8-a... From tomorrow here: sdrive.cnrs.fr/s/t7jH3ofqfk...
And after a night camera tow photographing the seafloor, a last, short Nautile dive for the #NODSSUM cruise - over a whale fall and its ecosystem and final inspection of radioactive waste barrels. Now en route to Brest: writing, packing, back ups of data, cleaning labs… ETA Sunday afternoon
Thanks to the use of the submersible Nautile, the #NODSSUM campaign have been able to collect samples from the barrels as well as seawater, sediment and marine organisms. At each return of Nautile from a dive, radiation levels on the sub and in the samples are controlled by the radioprotection team.
Rainy day start - with preps for the #NODSSUM cruise dive 2194, 16th of this cruise: launch the elevator to 4700 m with corers for Nautile, checks on the sub, prep of the basket… and the tool shack.
And during #NODSSUM, to gather additionnal images from biota, ecosystems, and dumped radioactive waste barrels, the deep-sea camera system SCAMPI, that flies two to three meters above the seafloor, taking snaps every 10 seconds, over several km, towed behind the ship.
Sediments provide a good environmental record of both natural and artificial radionuclides. To sample them, #NODSSUM deploys from the ship a coring system with multiple tubes, that preserves the interface between water and sediment, critical to our studies. 7 coring sites to date, more to come.
Catching up on #NODSSUM cruise - on instruments we deploy, and starting with water pumps, lowered either in moorings or attached to the ship's. Run by DT-INSU (CNRS), they pump around 1000 litres over 4hrs & capture radionuclides & organic matter w/ special filters to be later analysed.
Today we also learned that Russia is behind the arson attacks on K.Starmer’s properties. Europe has become a less safe place because of Russia’s hybrid warfare. We should take drastic measures against Telegram, app cited in almost all investigations as a source of Russian recruitment of attackers.
The #NODSSUM cruise reaches cruise speed. Three Nautile dives have recovered sediment, biologic specimens, water, and video of dumped barrels and ecosystems- plus towed camera runs and fish traps (2 abyssal grenadines to date) - with fair weather ahead after a stormy start.
#NODSSUM Pourquoi Pas? is in stand by - waiting on weather (WOW), with a depression passing over us. Sunday we plan our first Nautile dive after 1 week of unfriendly seas, and operations will start rolling. 1st dive over one of the selected radioactive waste barrel sites
#NODDSUM the new home till the end of June - Le Pourquoi Pas? de la flotteoceanographique.fr, w/ Nautile submarine onboard. The team converges to Brest this Monday w/ more material & instruments. Tomorrow boarding & lab set-up, departure Wed 27th 1st thing in the morning.
#NODSSUM a week away from departure for 2nd NODSSUM cruise @ NE Atlantic nuclear waste dump site we visited last year. Last-minute prep w/ transport of cruise material towards Brest - Including an important box just received. W/ the French Oceanographic Fleet, onboard #pourquoipas + #nautile
New evidence submitted by Greenpeace International to the International Seabed Authority (ISA) suggests deep-sea mining contractors, particularly those linked to The Metals Company (TMC), may have breached exploration contracts and international law. oceanographicmagazine.com/news/new-evi...
New evidence suggest breaches by deep sea mining contractors - Oceanographic
Greenpeace has submitted new evidence to an ongoing inquiry, claiming contractors used "bad faith" tactics to exploit deep-sea resources
oceanographicmagazine.com
A strong statement from the Director of CNRS Earth and Space about the dismantling of the National Center for Atmospheric Research: "a pillar of atmospheric and climate research is being torn down" @cnrs-insu.bsky.social @cnrs.fr @ncar-ucar.bsky.social
👩🎓 Ouverture des candidatures PSL #PhD tracks 2026-27 en Sciences de la terre et biodiversité. Ces cursus en 5 ans s'adressent à des étudiants à haut potentiel souhaitant relever les défis scientifiques de demain et préparer, dès le niveau Master, leur projet de recherche. 👉 psl.eu/phd-track-ea...
#Communiqué 🗞️ Une hausse de la température des fluides émis par les sources hydrothermales sous-marines signale l’inflation de la chambre magmatique sous le fond marin et peut annoncer une éruption. 🌋 🌊 👉 www.cnrs.fr/fr/presse/le...
The School de PIs #2 "ECOLπ2" now sails from St John's, arriving at Brest 21st Oct. Onboard l'Atalante F. Lallier (Sorbonne U., Station Biol. Roscoff) & M. Delescluse (ENS de Paris) together w/ 5 young scientists, C. Prigent, M. Bickert, J. Tugend, S. Sambolian & M. Ourgaud, under sunny skies now.
#DeepSeaMining would cause severe impacts in all levels of large marine ecosystems - it`s devastating
Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences@bigelowlab.bsky.social · 11mo agoDeep Sea Dialogue: Last month, diplomats, advocates, lawyers, and ambassadors from the @deepstewardship.bsky.social gathered in Kingston, Jamaica for the second part of the 30th session of the International Seabed Authority. Read more: www.bigelow.org/news/article... #bigelowlab #ocean #science
🧪⚒️ #NODSSUM cruise - On land, material & samples make their way back to home labs. And this morning we showed sonar images of barrels & photos taken by Ulyx flying at ~10 m above seafloor. Lots to do back in labs & offices. It was intense - good intense. Images: see copyright etc in thread
🧪⚒️ #NODSSUM cruise - Operational update - North East Atlantic zones NEA#3 of radioactive waste dump. UlyX mapped w/sonar 140 km2 (15 dives ), detecting more than 3000 barrels - 26 sites cored for sediment, 19 rosettes for water samples, 8 fishtraps (1 @ bottom, 9 rattails), 1 current meter.
🧪⚒️ #NODSSUM cruise - Sunday w/ pains au chocolat - & 48 h till we leave the work site. Last night no UlyX dive due to weather & coring. The 12-tube Oktopus corer preserves the water - sediment interface, and a critical part to look for radionuclides from barrels or surface fall-out.
🧪⚒️ #NODSSUM cruise - we are into the last week of the cruise. Up to now we have been spared of bad weather. We are now sandwiched in a narrow high pressure corridor w/ calm seas… ans spectacular sunsets & sunrises & moon rivers - but some rocking in the horizon this weekend.
🧪⚒️ #NODSSUM cruise - Operational update - North East Atlantic zones NEA#3 and NEA#4 of radioactive dump. UlyX mapped w/sonar 110 km2 in 7 dives (1 to process ), detecting more than 1900 barrels, 9 sites cored 1 going (sediment), more than 10 rosettes (water samples), & 9 rattails w/fish traps
🧪⚒️ #NODSSUM cruise - on board now the teams are well seasoned and coordinated - operations run smoothly and efficiently all along- with sunshine and calm seas - finally - for the next few days… Update of cruise results/dives/samples to come shortly www.linkedin.com/posts/caroli...
The #NODSSUM expedition is going well! | Caroline Gini
The #NODSSUM expedition is going well! ⛴️ Operations at sea are a complex ballet to ensure no time is wasted and all the scientific objectives are met by the end of the expedition 🔬📚⚒️ - First, ship...
linkedin.com
🧪⚒️ #NODSSUM cruise - WOW behind and WOW! Science day: Ulyx came back from a sonar survey at a site visited by AUV Epaulard in 1983 - >600 barrels more (>1800 to date) + a CTD/rosette during the dive, succesful sediment coring, and two fish traps recovered w/ 5 rattails (grenadiers).
🧪⚒️ #NODSSUM cruise - WOW - Wainting on Weather with a multibeam survey and no Ulyx dive yesterday- after 5 days of work at the radioactive waste dump site. After 5 Ulyx dives we now located >1200 barrels in sonar maps, and sediment/water/fish sampling is well on the way… more details later…
🧪⚒️ #NODSSUM cruise - we arrived to the radioactive waste dump site 2 days ago & AUV UlyX is brings up sonar data that will guide our sampling strategy. After checks for radioprotection, sonar data (500 Gb) transfer via the sturdiest hard drive ever - rated 6000m depth in a tinanium bottle.
🧪⚒️ #NODSSUM cruise - the first operations to test sampling of water and sediment, radioprotection protocoles, and the AUV w/ its new sonar are done. Soon off to a reference site w/ depths of more than 4800 m, before the work at the radioactive dump site.
