HE 191 - Heincke cruise 2003

Duration: 12 - 22 June 2003 Research Area: Skagerrak Ports: Bremerhaven - Bremerhaven Chief Scientist: Christian Borowski (MPI) - Participants (1473kb) Download cruise report here

Cruise objectives
Target working area was the Skagerrak Trench, stretching from shallow areas on the southern slope in the Danish EEZ to the deepest parts of the trench in the Norwegian EEZ. Objectives of this cruise were shallow hydro acoustic mapping of subsurface gas plumes and sediment sampling for

the quantification of the microbial turnover of methane in gassy sediments as well as the characterisation of the geochemical conditions for the anaerobic methane oxidation,

the characterisation and identification of microorganisms involved in the methane oxidation in aerobic and anaerobic sediment layers.

As part of these investigations, characteristic organic molecules were to be identified which can be used as biomarkers for the anaerobic methane oxidizing microorganisms.

HE 191 cruise track, and working areas: Area 1 covers the depth range of 80 - >500 m across the southern slope of the Norwegian Trench. Area 2 is located in a pockmark aggregation in the deepest part of the trench.

Seismic lines in working area 1. Profile 1 was chosen for the sediment sampling program. Locations for gravity core samples along the transect were chosen according to various features seen in the seismic and bathymetric profile. These included e.g. elongated pockmarks on the upper slope and conspicuous subsurface gas contours. The depths of the sampling locations ranged from 86 m to 495 m.

Gravity core sampling locations across the southern slope of the Norwegian Trench.

Sampling transect across a pockmark on the upper trench slope.

Left: At each gravity core loction, additional samples were taken with the Rumohr Lot, a small gravity corer with which we obtained up to 1-m long cores. These samples serve for the depth calibration of the geochemical profiles analysed in the pore water of the long gravity cores. Right The long gravity cores are subsampled with a number of differently sized plexiglass tubes and cut-off syringes for various geochemical, microbiological and molecular biological parameters.