What are the scientific objectives of UTIG study of the Hess Deep?
The Hess Deep is a steeply plunging rift adjacent to the East Pacific Rise, one of the planet’s fastest-spreading mid-ocean ridges. Because the Hess Deep slices through recently created crust, it provides a window into the Earth’s crust-making processes. The purpose of the geophysical survey is to generate a “picture” of the structure of Earth’s crust at Hess Deep from the geophysical data, which scientists can compare with the outcrop geology observed by NSF-sponsored submersible dives carried out in 1999 and 2001.
