Real or fake? Exploring animal communities associated with natural and artificial polymetallic nodules

NIOZ frames with natural and artificial nodules deployed in the CCZ. Photo: ROV team/GEOMAR

by Sabine Gollner and Coral Diaz Recio Lorenzo (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research NIOZ) The growth of the global economy and technological development is increasingly leading to scarcity of certain metals essential for the high-tech industry. Many countries including a number from the EU are currently exploring the potential of deep-sea mineral resource exploitation […]

The taste of sediment

The author working with sediment cores. Photo: Kristin Hamann

by Henko de Stigter (Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, NIOZ) Until somebody came up with the idea of mining polymetallic nodules from the abyssal depths of the Pacific Ocean, this place was one of the remotest and quietest on our planet. Far away from the brute natural forces of storms, floods, landslides, tsunamis and […]

A small world between grains / Eine kleine Welt zwischen den Sandkörnern

The Multicorer being recoverd / Der Multicorer kommt nach erfolgreichem Einsatz mit gefüllten Rohren zurück an Deck. Photo: Julia Otte

by Dr. Sven Rossel, Katja Uhlenkott und Ann-Kathrin Weßel (deutsch s.u.) “Ah, you’re playing with mud again.” That is something biologists and geologists hear quite often on board. And yes, we are one of the parties “playing with mud”. But actually we, the biologists from Senckenberg, German Centre for Marine Biodiversity Research, are not interested […]

The ROV on board SONNE 268

ROV KIEL 6000 on board SONNE 268. Foto: Khamann

The largest and probably most expensive scientific equipment on board of RV SONNE on the present leg is a remotely operated deep-diving “robot” called ROV KIEL 6000. “ROV” is the abbreviation for “Remotely Operated Vehicle”. The ROV provides “eyes and arms in the deep sea”. ROV KIEL 6000, which got its name from the city […]

Mapping the seafloor/Die Kartierung des Meeresbodens

Fig. 1: Here you can see the 3D representation of the seafloor. Abb. 1: Hier sehen sie den Meeresboden als 3D-Karte.

(Deutsche Version unten) How do you plan research that is to be conducted at the seafloor in 4000 meter water depth? How do you choose the locations for your studies in a large area that you may not know much about yet? How do you pick the best spot to deploy sensors? – Which path […]

Wer ist eigentlich Eddy?/Who actually is Eddy?

(English version below) Das war eine häufige Frage an Bord zu Beginn unserer Forschungsfahrt. Denn das „Eddy“ Teil unserer wissenschaftlichen Untersuchungen wird, ergab sich relativ kurzfristig. Eddies sind temporäre Wasserwirbel mit einem Durchmesser von mehreren hundert Kilometern, die lange Strecken durch den offenen Ozean zurücklegen können, bevor sie sich irgendwann auflösen. Sie können von der […]

BOBO and the 7 (+7) dwarfs: How to sense the deep sea

Sensor platform with a optical backscatter sensor an an ADCP.

by Sabine Haalboom (NIOZ) The first half of the cruise has passed and we’ve finished the baseline studies in the Belgian license area. Doing my PhD research in marine geology at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), my main interest is the particle dynamics in the bottom boundary layer (i.e. the layer close […]