Seafloor Surveys using Deep-towed Vehicles for Mineral Resource Investigation off Taiwan

This paper presents the seafloor survey results obtained in 2017 using two deep-towed vehicles, FITS and TVG, developed by the Institute of Undersea Technology at National Sun Yat-sen University, for investigating mineral resource potential offshore northeastern Taiwan. The seafloor surveys were conducted at five sites in the Southern Okinawa Trough via three cruises. A total of 39.4 kilometers of seafloor observation was accomplished, and plenty of seafloor characteristics and ecological phenomena were observed through FITS and TVG in the three cruises.