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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Alan Jamieson, Dr Thomas Linley
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
© 2019 The Authors. Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. This comment presents acoustic and visual data showing deep seafloor depression chains similar to those reported in Marsh et al. (R. Soc. open sci. 5: 180286), though from a different deepsea setting. Marsh et al. present data collected during cruise JC120 from polymetallic nodule rich sites within the Clarion-Clipperton Fracture Zone (CCFZ), at water depths of between 3999 and 4258 m. Within this comment, we present data collected with equivalent acoustic and imaging devices on-board the RV Sonne (SO261-March/April 2018) from the Atacama Trench, approximately 4000 m depth, which shows comparable depression chains in the seafloor. In contrast with the CCFZ observations, our study area was wholly free of polymetallic nodules, an observation therefore weakening the ballast collection by deep-sea diving mammals formation hypothesis discussed in their paper. We support their alternate hypothesis that if these features are indeed generated by deep-diving.
Author(s): Purser A, Herr H, Dreutter S, Dorschel B, Glud RN, Hehemann L, Hoge U, Jamieson AJ, Linley TD, Stewart HA, Wenzhofer F
Publication type: Review
Publication status: Published
Journal: Royal Society Open Science
Year: 2019
Volume: 6
Issue: 3
Online publication date: 13/03/2019
Acceptance date: 18/02/2019
ISSN (electronic): 2054-5703
Publisher: Royal Society Publishing
URL: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.182053
DOI: 10.1098/rsos.182053
