Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-21-2025

Journal / Book Title

AGU Advances

Abstract

Recent changes in US oceanographic assets are impacting scientists' ability to access seafloor and sub-seafloor materials and thus constraining progress on science critical for societal needs. Here we identify national infrastructure needs to address critical science questions. This commentary reports on community-driven discussions that took place during the 3-day FUTURE of US Seafloor Sampling Capabilities 2024 Workshop, which used an “all-hands-on-deck” approach to assess seafloor and sub-seafloor sampling requirements of a broad range of scientific objectives, focusing on capabilities that could be supported through the US Academic Research Fleet (US-ARF) now or in the near future. Cross-cutting issues identified included weight and size limitations in the over-boarding capabilities of the US-ARF, a need to access material at depths greater than ∼20 m below the seafloor, sampling capabilities at the full range of ocean depths, technologies required for precise navigation-guided sampling and drilling, resources to capitalize on the research potential of returned materials, and workforce development.

DOI

10.1029/2024AV001560

Rights

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License

Published Citation

FUTURE 2024 PI-team, Appelgate, B., Dugan, B., Eguchi, N., Fornari, D., Freudenthal, T., et al. (2025). The FUTURE of the US marine seafloor and subseafloor sampling capabilities. AGU Advances, 6, e2024AV001560. https://doi.org/10.1029/2024AV001560

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