Tragica - Cruise No. M79/2 - August 26 – September 21, 2009 - Ponta Delgada (Azores / Portugal) – Las Palmas (Canary Islands / Spain) (English)

The working area of the METEOR cruise M79, Leg 2 in summer 2009 was located in the region of the Azores in the eastern North-Atlantic. During the cruise, one seismic wide angle refraction line was acquired in the region of São Miguel running perpendicular to the island close to the most active Fogo volcano. OBS and land stations were used in order to record the marine shooting, which resulted in a continuous coverage along the line, aiming on a deeper insight into the structure of São Miguel and its volcanoes. A second line crosses an aseismic section of the Gloria Fault in the further east. Here, the acquisition has been designed to study the crustal structure of the African-Eurasian collision zone, where no or less tectonic overprinting has occurred by the Azores mantel plume. In addition reflection seismic and hydroacoustic profiling were done to identify fault systems, sub- and perched basins as well as volcanic and mass waste deposits. Imaging of basin fill deposits and their deformation or fault pattern will help to distinguish between tectonic active and passive phases. Gravity and magnetic data were simultaneously collected during profiling; this data will be used for combined seismic and potential field modeling.