Brief Cruise Summary

The WOCE S4P Expedition aboard the Russian R/V Akademik Ioffe started in Montevideo, Uruguay, on February 14, 1992, and ended in Wellington, New Zealand, on April 6, 1992, after 51 days at sea. The cruise track included hydrographic stations that began on the continental shelf of the Antarctic Peninsula at 67° 28´ S and 71° 05´ W on February 22, 1992. Stations continued west along ~67° S at intervals of 30 nautical miles. The first ten stations were established along a northwesterly line approximately perpendicular to the continental slope, with stations over the shelf break and slope located on depths separated by an 800-m isobath. Over the Bellingshausen Abyssal Plain, between 91° 34´ W and 130° 41´ W, and over the Amundsen Abyssal Plain, between 142° 11´ W and 157° 41´ W, the station spacing was increased to 40 nautical miles. At 174° 15´ E, the track turned southwest to run perpendicular to the Antarctic continental shelf. The section was completed with a 400-m-deep station off Yang Island of the Balleny Islands at 66° 25´ S and 162° 41´ E. The last station (no. 795) was the eastern terminus for the continuation of the WOCE Section S4 into the Indian Ocean.