Endurance Offshore V15

Location: 44.2ºN  124.6ºW     Water Depth: 585 to 615 meters       

The Endurance Offshore Study Site at OOI RSN Primary Node PN1C will host two cabled moorings and and one uncabled mooring, as well as a seafloor Benthic Experiment Package (BEP). Shared with OOI RSN, this Endurance Array site, led by Oregon State University, is part of two cross-margin instrumented arrays along the Oregon (west of Newport) and Washington margins (west of Grays Harbor). The Newport Endurance Line consists of both cabled and uncabled moorings and seafloor infrastructure, while the Grays Harbor site consists of uncabled moorings. These sites are designed to examine biogeochemical and physical oceanographic processes within these highly productive coastal environments. The ecosystems are significantly impacted by wind-driven upwelling of nutrient-rich currents, and at times by hypoxia events. In addition to the moorings and seafloor instruments, a series of autonomous gliders will travel from the near shore to deep waters and will provide three-dimensional measurements of ocean chemistry, biology, and currents.