U.S.S. San Francisco preparing to dock at Apra Harbor

KUAM-TV ^ | January 10, 2005 | Sabrina Salas Matanane, KUAM News

[BigSkyFreeper]

The U.S.S. San Francisco is pulling into Apra Harbor, returning to its local homeport after having run aground Saturday afternoon about 350 miles south of Guam. More than 20 people were injured aboard the nuclear submarine. A Navy sailor, whose name has not been released, died from injuries he sustained from the collision.

According to Pacific Submarine Forces spokesperson, Lieutenant Commander Jeff Davis, the name of the victim will be released at 5pm Guam time.

KUAM has confirmed that there is another Sailor who is in serious condition. A total of 23 sailors were injured when the vessel ran aground. They remain onboard the ship until it arrives to its homeport of Guam. The U.S. Coast Guard over the weekend dispatched a medical team to the submarine to treat the injured. According to the Navy, the injuries include broken bones, lacerations and bruises.

"The U.S.S. San Francisco was in the area of the Caroline Ridge," said Lt. Commander Davis. The Caroline Ridge is east of Palau and Yap, intersecting the Yap Trench from the east, and consists of a chain of seamounts. The Navy will not release at what depth or the speed at which it was traveling when it ran aground. Added Lt. Commander Davis, "We have absolutely no reason to believe that the submarine hit anything other than a geographic feature".

An investigation is underway. The Navy could not provide how much in damage was done to the vessel, with Lt. Commander Davis adding, "We are actively investigating this incident so that it will never happen again."

[LibertarianInExile]

One sailor died in the accident, according to PDN. And you can bet another is going to be locked in at Ensign JG for the rest of his life.

[TXnMA]

I've heard of flying into a mountain -- but not doing so underwater...

The crazy thing about the topography of the ocean floor in that area is that the seamounts of the Caroline Ridge (which the sub supposedly hit) are very near to the Marianas Trench -- the deepest spot on Earth...

My guess is that our undersea topographic mapping in this area is not too good.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Found this, seems to be a very interesting area.

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Introduction

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The Yap Trench lies on the southeastern boundary of the Philippine Sea Plate in the western Pacific (Fig. 1). The Yap Trench is one section of a continuous system of arcuate trenches. These include the Izu-Bonin, Mariana, Yap, and Palau trenches, framing the eastern boundary of the Philippine Sea Plate. The Yap Trench is in a complex tectonic region of convergence between the Philippine Sea, the Pacific, and the Caroline plates. The Yap, Palau trenches, and the Ayu Trough, which is located in the southwest of the Palau Trench, form a plate boundary between the Philippine Sea and the Caroline plates. The Yap and Palau trenches are considered to be convergent boundaries, while the Ayu Trough is thought to be a divergent boundary (Weissel and Anderson, 1978; Fujiwara et al., 1995). Models of Philippine Sea Plate motion (Ranken et al., 1984; Seno et al., 1993) indicate that the rotation pole of the Philippine Sea-Caroline plates is at the junction of the Palau Trench and Ayu Trough, near 6°N, 134°E. The rate of relative plate motion is estimated to be 0.7°/m.y., that is, 0-6 mm/yr along the Yap and Palau trenches (Seno et al., 1993). The age of the subducting West Caroline Basin of the Caroline Plate is estimated to be 35°30 Ma (Bracey, 1975; Hegarty and Weissel, 1988; Yamazaki et al., 1994), and the age of the overlying Parece Vela Basin of the Philippine Sea Plate is estimated to be 30°25 Ma (Mrozowski and Hayes, 1979).

Fig.1: Location map of the Yap Trench. The contour interval is 2,000 m. The box shows the survey area as shown in Fig.3. The distribution of earthquake hypocenters are represented by solid black symbols: Circles = source depth shallower than 50 km, Diamonds = 50-100 km, Crosses = deeper than 100 km. Global hypocentral data from ISC since 1980.

Fig.2: Bathymetric map of the circumambient regions of the Yap Trench. The contour interval is 500 m. The bathymetric data are based on the global bathymetry of ETOPO5 (NGDC, 1988). The star symbol shows the pole position of Philippine Sea - Caroline plates estimated by Seno et al. (1993). The solid black symbols show hypocentral distribution. See Figure 1 caption.

The length of the Yap Trench is about 700 km (Fig. 2). The trench axis elongates in a convex shape toward the southeast. An arc involving the Yap Island on the Philippine Sea Plate side forms a trench-arc system. This arc consists primarily of metamorphic rocks and lacks active volcanism (Shiraki, 1971; Hawkins and Batiza, 1977). The arc-type rocks found on the islands are no younger than Late Oligocene or Miocene. The distance between the island-arc and the trench axis is about 50 km, which is much less than that of other trench-arc systems. The Caroline Ridge, oriented in an ESE-WNW direction, intersects the trench from the east. This ridge consists of a chain of seamounts thought to be of hotspot origin (Keating et al., 1984) of less than 40 m.y. (Hegarty and Weissel, 1988). Seismicity along the trench is low. Earthquakes occur at a depth of less than 50 km, and no deep-focus earthquakes are apparent along the trench. A Wadati-Benioff zone, demonstrated by a plane of deep-focus earthquakes reflecting dynamic interaction between a subducting and an overriding plates, is thus not defined. Considering the above geological and geophysical features, the Yap Trench is controversial regarding the activity of plate subduction at present. Hawkins and Batiza (1977) and McCabe and Uyeda (1983) suggested that subduction at the Yap Trench may have suspended by collision of the Caroline Ridge. McCabe and Uyeda (1983) suggested that the Caroline Ridge collided with the Yap Trench in early Miocene, and that this collision made the volcanic activity in the Yap Arc stop, and narrowing the distance between arc and trench. In contrast, some petrological and geophysical studies suggested that subduction at the trench may still be active. Fresh volcanic rock fragments and hydrothermally affected rocks, dredged in the back-arc region, may suggest in-situ or nearby hydrothermal activity in relation to Quaternary volcanic activity (Fujioka et al., 1986). High heat flow values were observed in the back-arc region and appreciably large values of negative free-air gravity anomalies were observed along the trench axis (Nagihara et al., 1989). Large negative gravity anomaly is indicative of dynamic force exerted on crust under the trench associated with ongoing subduction of the oceanic lithosphere. Observation of micro-seismic activity in the trench area suggested that tectonic force, found in active subduction zones, acted on the crust of the trench (Sato et al., 1997).

Prior to our study, there were insufficient data for understanding the tectonics and geodynamics of the Yap Trench. We conducted swath bathymetry and gravity surveys of the Yap Trench aboard the R/V Yokosuka in 1993, 1994 and 1996, in combination with dive surveys of the research submersible Shinkai 6500 (Fujioka et al., 1994, 1996). We hope that our study stimulates further geological and geophysical studies in this region, focused on morphotectonic characteristics, by providing a high quality base map, and that it will provide insight into the tectonics of the Yap Trench, the Philippine Sea Plate and the circum-plates.

Diagrams :

here

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Bathymetric map of the circumambient regions of the Yap Trench. The contour interval is 500 m. The bathymetric data are based on the global bathymetry of ETOPO5 (NGDC, 1988). The star symbol shows the pole position of Philippine Sea - Caroline plates estimated by Seno et al. (1993). The solid black symbols show hypocentral distribution. See Figure 1 caption.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Survey ship tracks in the region of the Yap Trench. The solid, gray and dashed lines show the tracks from the Y95-06, Y96-12, and Y93-03 cruises of the R/V Yokosuka, respectively. The dotted lines show the tracks of the KH92-1 cruise of the R/V Hakuho-maru. The area surveyed by Iwabuchi et al. (1990) aboard the S/V Takuyo is stippled.

Looks like this survey was concerned aout mapping the deep trench areas..

No interest in the Seamount areas.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

fyi

[Clemenza]

USS San Francisco? Don't Ask, Don't Tell...

[Boot Hill]

Thanks for the ping, EATB.

"A total of 23 sailors were injured when the vessel ran aground. A Navy sailor, whose name has not been released, died from injuries he sustained from the collision...another Sailor...is in serious condition."

What a damn shame, prayers for the brave men of the USS San Francisco and their families.

--Boot Hill

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

A real tragedy.

My point with those maps, is that the great interest in the area is the trenches, very stange stuff, good possibility that the seamounts are not as well mapped and there could have been some changes from the Indonesia event.

[Boot Hill]

From your posts in #4, #5, #6, I'm wondering if you misunderstood the article. The information provided so far does not say the accident occured in the vacinity of the Yap Trench, only that it occured in the Caroline Ridge area which extends east of the Yap Trench, for quite some distance.

I don't want to clutter this thread up with another map, but I posted and excellent map here that you might want to take a look at (read the text above it, too).

Map to the Grounding Area

--Boot Hill

[Boot Hill]

Sorry about that, I was in the process of posting #11, just as you were posting #10.

--Boot

[rmmcdaniell]

USS San Francisco? Don't Ask, Don't Tell...

So they ran aground. Was it a rear-end collision?

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Well, anyway that's my theory, might be a poorly mapped area , lots of islands, maybe even some changes, although that would seem unlikely.

[Boot Hill]

"good possibility that the seamounts are not as well mapped and there could have been some changes from the Indonesia event."

I suspect they were trying to make a very fast north-to-south run through the Caroline ridge, on their way to Brisbane. I'd be willing to bet the farm that the big quake in Indonesia had nothing to do with it, those atolls would have had to move miles before they'd hazard a vessel.

--Boot Hill

[Larry381]

Brings to mind a sub that was destroyed in WW2 when it was grounded off Bombay Shoal near Palawan-the sub was the USS Darter. For some reason I always remembered this incident along with the sad story of the USS Wahoo.

[oldironsides]

The sailor's name was in the paper in his hometown in Ct.

[Schwaeky]

Somebody must have been doing too many Crazy Ivans

[rwa265]

A description of the USS San Francisco (SSN 711) can be found at:

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/agency/navy/ssn-711.htm

[Robe]

Update........

USS San Francisco returns to Guam's Apra Harbor Submarine hit something

Pacific Daily News

The submarine USS San Francisco, with one of its sailors dead and 23 others injured from an accident Saturday, has reached the waters in Guam's Apra Harbor around 3 p.m. Monday Guam time.

The nuclear-powered submarine was expected to dock at Sierra Wharf on the Naval Forces Marianas base an hour later.

As it approached the dock, no visible damage could be seen as the San Francisco still had its hull underwater while still about an hour out from the wharf.

The Navy was expected to release the name of the sailor who died in the accident later on Monday in Guam.

The San Francisco ran aground Saturday about 350 miles from Guam on its way to Australia.

The Navy on Guam stated that the submarine hit something "topographical."

The Navy assured on Sunday the submarine is safe. Lt. Arwen Consaul, U.S. Navy public affairs officer on Guam, said the hull is intact and the submarine is traveling normally. She said there is no leak of radioactivity and there will be “no environmental effects whatsoever.”

The USS San Francisco is a Los Angeles-class submarine operated by one nuclear reactor and one shaft and is one of the three nuclear-powered submarines based on Guam.