The cruise was part of the RHUM-RUM experiment – a French-German joint project that aims to image the Reunion hotspot from the core-mantle boundary to the surface. This was the second (and the last) research cruise within this project, and I was fortunate enough to attend both of them.
The experience combined being close to a team of very experienced seismologists (including the two Principal Investigators - Karin Sigloch and Guilhem Barruol) and marine geophysicists, and a wonderful group of enthusiastic students – all this in an amazing setting - the Indian Ocean – a tectonic paradise comprising active and extinct mid ocean ridges, triple junctions, deep fracture zones, submerged seamounts, active volcanoes, etc.
As most of CEED’ activities are revolving around mantle plume and hotspot related processes, together with my colleagues, we are looking forward to exciting results from the new data that has been collected in the RHUM-RUM year (October 2012 to November 2013).
Read more about the project and our experience on the Marion Dufresne and Meteor research vessels here: http://rhum-rum.net/en/, and the nice News Feature by Nature here: http://www.nature.com/news/earth-science-under-the-volcano-1.14323.
