The cruise is coming to an end, and there are 8 days left until we enter the port of Guayaquil. While some of the measurements on board can be read out directly and preliminary interpretations are presented during the cruise, there are also a lot of samples that can only be analyzed in the laboratory […]
It was a nice and sunny day, like most of our days on the Alkor, the research vessel of our cruise. Steady noise coming from the winch and anticipating buzz, which surrounded a group of students with safety boots and helmets, filled the air. Once the upcoming net broke the water surface and got „gehievt“ […]
German version below The stars at night are the same, the world keeps turning and (almost) everything remains the same in the rest of the world. But after a 23-day transit between the Northwestern African coast and the Central American coast, with few signs of civilization (only a few cargo-ships at a distance) and a […]
“How to make a group of scientists very happy and super excited?” “Oh smoke!” On the 5th working day, we were at the location near Rainbow hydrothermal vent. From the camera attached to the multicorer, we saw very strong plume and smoke at about 2000 m depth. And this, charged a whole room of scientists […]
It is a great honor to join the scientific cruise M176/2, a part of the International GEOTRACES Program as a process study. The aim of this cruise is to conduct a detailed geochemical study of the hydrothermal plume at deep (~2500m) close to the sea floor at the Rainbow Vent in the North Atlantic. But […]
Hello, my name is Chris Galley, and I’m a geophysics PhD student from Canada assisting with the collection and processing of the ship’s acoustic-based imaging data, and mapping. These acoustic methods all measure some feature of the water column, seafloor, or sub-seafloor by releasing pressure waves (sound pings) and then studying the waves upon their […]
Anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2) are causing climate change, global warming, and ocean acidification. Microscopic plants called phytoplankton, living in the surface oceans, sequester 50% of global CO2 and supply >50% of new nitrogen used for primary production. Other than light and major nutrients, phytoplankton growth is strongly influenced by availability […]
It is the fourth day since we arrived at our research location in the middle of the Atlantic: The Rainbow Plume. The Multicorer, or short “MUC” just arrived its final destination at 2300m water depth. Now the wire that holds the MUC tightens again and the winch slowly starts pulling the device back on board. […]
The cruise M176/2 is part of the International GEOTRACES Programme as a process study. The overall aim of cruise M176/2 is to conduct a detailed geochemical sampling of the hydrothermal plume at the Rainbow vent field located at 36°13.80 N, 33°54.14 W on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR). The deep ocean work will be complimented by […]
english version below Seit sechs Tagen sind wir nun in unserem Arbeitsgebiet vor Nova Scotia. Daher arbeiten die Teams der Geologie und Ozeanographie nun täglich an Deck. Über Nacht fahren die Hydroakustiker Profile ab, worauf am Morgen danach die Parasound-Daten gesichtet werden. Anhand der Sedimentecholotprofile entscheidet dann Fahrtleiter Ralph in Absprache mit unseren Teamleiter:innen Felix […]