Harvesting

Earthquake waves generated by the Sept 9, 2017 Mexiko earthquake (magnitude 8.2). The waves travel through the earth, similar to a medical computer tomography. We use these data to reconstruct the inner structure of our planet.

During our last days here in our working area we are shifting it into gear, because it is harvesting time! Finally we will have a look at our data coming back from the sea floor – we all have been waiting for this very moment since weeks now (and some of us since a few […]

On the edge

Wet conditions on the edge. Photo: M. Neckel, GEOMAR/CAU.

In our last blog entries we have already reported on our gear and how difficult recovery can be at times. Today, we would like to share some of the daily working life of the scientists here on board with you. Marine geophysical surveys commonly require a large number of helping hands (and brains, of course). […]

To fish in muddy waters…

OBS waiting for ist recovery on the starboard side of RV Maria S Merian. Photo: Y. Xia, GEOMAR

Doing science at sea has its very own rules – just like the German soccer cup or DFB-Pokal, for which the saying goes: The cup makes its own rules. The teams dedicate many months to a thorough preparation, all options are evaluated, everything is double-checked, every tactical variation is considered and at the end everything […]

Ocean bottom What??

An OBS on the working deck of RV Merian. The orange cylinders are the floatations which make sure that the instrument will come back to the surface. Photo: Martha Deen

If you want to get an image of the Alps, you need seismometers surrounding the area. But how do you get the seismometers to work at the bottom of the sea? And how do you get them back? To explain this, we invite you to a virtual journey on board of the research vessel Maria […]

EN ROUTE !

Stormy welcome on the Atlantic: View from the bridge of RV Maria S. Merian onto the virulent waves. Photo: A. Beniest, IPGP

With a few hours delay we left the port of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria to sail to the Ligurian Sea. The start of MSM 71 indeed proved stormy: The Atlantic waters greeted us with winds of 7 Bft and gales of up to 10 Bft with waves of 6 m height. Nonetheless, everybody on […]