Recover and return

— Deutscher Text folgt unten — The fifth week of our cruise was dominated by the finalization of work and the coordination of the recovery of the PAP ODAS buoy. Following a general enquiry by British colleagues from National Oceanography Centre (NOC) to recover this scientific equipment, it had become clear that we could create […]

Image analysis

by Benson MbaniTwo weeks into my summer holiday, while dancing along to the Jerusalema dance challenge, an email came through which needed urgent action. Usually while on holiday, I only briefly check emails every few days, and only respond to urgent ones. It was from Dr. Timm Schoening – my supervisor and chief scientist for […]

Surprise MUC

— Deutscher Text folgt unten — The geochemistry group leader runs into the mess, shouting “SURPRISE MUC IN 15 MINUTES!”. Our adrenaline levels shoot through the roof. Everyone leaves their coffee/tea behind, we walk rather quickly (no running on deck!), clothes get changed, everyone is on their post. After three weeks on the research vessel, […]

Nachbarschaftshilfe

— Deutscher Text folgt unten — Yesterday our research trip turned into a rescue mission for some time. What had happened? Maybe you remember the heavy storm we reported about at the beginning of our trip, which forced us to change our work area. It was exactly this storm that damaged a long-term ocean observation […]

The mysteries of deep-sea sediments

— Deutscher Text folgt unten — We as geochemists are excited about sediments… and pore water! If you think it is all the same in the deep-sea, you are wrong. The sediments are very diverse and studying this diversity is also the purpose of our cruise. We can already see and feel this – oh […]

Day and Night

— Deutscher Text folgt unten — Nineteen days into the science program we are currently finishing the 57th station of this cruise before heading into a night of mapping again. Since leaving the EEZ of Ireland on October 13th, we have already travelled 2950 nautical miles in total (ca. 5460km) within international waters. We deployed […]

Stalk, stalk, stalk.

— Deutscher Text folgt unten — “It’s a metal cage with a couple of cameras being dragged behind the ship, it’s pretty simple” our research group leader said, describing the OFOS (Ocean Floor Observation System), with a smirk on his face, well knowing that bringing such equipment down to the seafloor makes things get difficult […]

The cuteness-scale

— Deutscher Text folgt unten — Since the dawn of time mankind was driven by the question “How cute is this thing?”. Countless devices were invented specifically to answer this question. Objects resembling lenses date back 4000 years ago. These early microscopes were used to determine the cuteness factor of very small objects (ref. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microscope). […]

Pebbles in deep-sea sediments

— Deutscher Text folgt unten — As described by my colleague Palash, we are collecting sediment with the Multicorer (MUC). Typical deep sea sediment is greyish-brownish, sticky mud. Like the stuff used for making pottery. Deep-sea sediment generally consists of very fine particles: carried from land into the ocean, either by rivers or by wind-blown […]