The westernmost portion of the United States, the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, protects 246,608 square kilometers of submerged land around the Mariana Islands. The monument contains many unique habitats including the deepest ocean areas and the largest known mud volcanoes on Earth. Yet, the majority of the seafloor inside the Monument has not been explored with modern technologies, with the overlying water column remaining virtually unexplored. This 26-day expedition will explore the seafloor and overlying water column around the Mariana Trench through the use of various technologies from partner institutions of the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute, including the University of Rhode Island’s Deep Autonomous Profiler, University of Hawaiʻi’s Hadal Water Column Profiler, OET’s ROVs, and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s eDNA samplers integrated onto ROV Hercules.
The expedition name Metaw, describing the deepest parts of the ocean or the open ocean in Refaluwasch (Carolinian) language, was selected by the Mariana Trench Marine National Monument in consultation with cultural experts John Castro from the CNMI Department of Community and Cultural Affairs-Traditional Seafaring Program and Kodep Ogumoro Uludong from the Refaluwasch Advisory Council, with support from the Chamorro-Carolinian Language Policy Commission.
This expedition is funded by NOAA Ocean Exploration via the Ocean Exploration Cooperative Institute.
