Annotated record of the detailed examination of Mn deposits from the R/V Galathea II Danish Deep Sea Expedition, 1950-1952

The Danish Expedition of the "Galathea II" around the world brought important results concerning the marine organisms in the deep sea. The "Galathea II" showed not only different organisms of the Abyssal but for the first time of the deepest trenches of the western Pacific. Anton Bruun coined the term Hadal for the region below the Abyssal under 6000 m. Although the "Galathea II" aimed to investigate new deep sea regions beside the routes of former expeditions and to widen the horizon of knowledge relating marine organisms the technical equipment and the methodological approach had partly been developed earlier. The expedition of the "Galathea II" is part of a long tradition of cruises such as that of the British "Challenger", the German "Valdivia" and the Swedish "Albatross" and especially the Danish cruises of the "Dana I" and "Dana II" which happened some years before.

Annotated record of the detailed examination of Mn deposits from DODO Expedition stations

The cores and dredges described in this report were taken on the DODO Expedition in May 1964 until December 1964 by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from the R/V Argo. A total of 290 cores and dredges were recovered and are available at Scripps for sampling and study.

Characteristics of samples obtained during the expedition to Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island in July/August 2014

The German-Russian project CARBOPERM - Carbon in Permafrost, origin, quality, quantity, and degradation and microbial turnover - is devoted to studying soil organic matter history, degradation and turnover in coastal lowlands of Northern Siberia. The multidisciplinary project combines research from various German and Russian institutions and runs from 2013 to 2016. The project aims assessing the recent and the ancient trace gas budget over tundra soils in northern Siberia. Studied field sites are placed in the permafrost of the Lena Delta and on Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky, the southernmost island of the New Siberian Archipelago in the eastern Laptev Sea. Field campaigns to Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky in 2014 (chapter 2) were motivated by research on palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimate reconstruction, sediment dating, near surface geophysics and microbiological research. In particular the field campaigns focussed on: - coring Quaternary strata with a ages back to ~200.000 years ago as found along the southern coast; they allow tracing microbial communities and organic tracers (i.e. lipids and biomarkers, sedimentary DNA) in the deposits across two climatic cycles (chapter 3), - instrumenting a borehole with a thermistor chain for measuring permafrost temperatures (chapter 3), - sampling Quaternary strata for dating permafrost formation periods based on the optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) technique (chapter 4), - sampling soil and geologic formations for carbon content in order to highlight potential release of CO2 and methane based on incubation experiments (chapter 5), - profiling near surface permafrost using ground-penetrating radar and geoelectrics for defining the spatial depositional context, where the cores are located (chapters 6 + 7).

Grain size and description on gravity core samples from ANT-IV/2 expedition to the Bransfield Strait

From the above and the grafical results it can be concluded that cores in the research area are locally dominated by turbiditic sequences, which can be observed by a strong increase in coarser sediment (>35 µm). These coarser intercalations are lacking in the vicinity of basaltic seamounts, probably due to a shadowing effect of the seamounts. The infill of the King George Basin might be dominated by a north eastern current. Sedimentary structures as observed in the cores are often lacking or vague due to hydrothermal effects (Suess, L, 1986).

(Table 1) Air-earth current density investigated during Atlantic Expedition 1973 of METEOR

One main point of our atmospheric-electric measurements over the Atlantic Ocean 1973 was the investigation of the air-earth current density above the sea. In addition to direct measurements at the water surface with a floating net, we calculated the air-earth current density from the electric field and the air conductivity measured simultaneously on board of the ship and during particular ascents in the free atmosphere. During all five ascents the air-earth current density did not change with altitude. For pure maritime air-conditions, the mean air-earth current density was found to be 2.9 pA/m**2. The mean hourly air-earth current density over the Atlantic shows nearly the same 24-hour pattern as measured by Cobb (1977) at the South Pole at the same time. When dust-loaden air masses of African origin reached the ship as well as under continental influence the mean air-earth current density was reduced to 2.1 pA/m**2. The global 24-hour pattern was modified by this continental influences. Finally, it is shown that the values of the air conductivity measured on board R. V. "Meteor" during our earlier expeditions have been influenced by the exhaust of the ship and must therefore be corrected. With this correction, our new mean values of the air-earth current density over the Atlantic are 2.6 pA/m**2 in 1965 and 2.0 pA/m**2 in 1969. From all measurements, the global air-earth current is estimated to be about 1250 A.

Annotated record of the detailed examination of Mn deposits from CHINOOK Expedition stations

The cores described in this report were taken during the CHINOOK Expedition in July to August 1956 by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography from the R/V Spencer F. Baird. A total of 20 cores and dredges were recovered and are available at Scripps for sampling and study.

Annotated record of the detailed examination of Mn deposits from the H.M.S. Sealark Percy Sladen Trust Expedition in the Indian ocean

In 1905, the Percy Sladen Trust Expedition, under the supervision of Stanley Gardiner in H.M.S. 'Sealark' made an extensive cruise in the Indian Ocean. The author received 79 samples from Mr. Gardiner which were thoroughly examined.

Annotated record of the detailed examination of Mn deposits from the FANFARE Expedition stations

The cores described in this report were taken on the FANFARE Expedition in July 1959 by Scripps Institution of Oceanography from the R/V H. M. Smith and the R/V Spencer F. Baird. A total of 49 cores and dredges were recovered and are available at Scripps for sampling and study. The coring sites, all in the eastern tropical central Pacific.

Annotated record of the detailed examination of Mn deposits from the SO 79 (SEDIPERU - TUSCH) expedition from R/V Sonne

The research cruise SO79 with RV SONNE (April 18 to June 09 1992) aimed to assess the impact of a potential mining activity on the sensitive deep-sea ecosystem of the Peru Basin. Up to now only results of reconnaissance surveys of the extended manganese nodule field discovered in 1978 in the Peru Basin are available. The hydroacoustic, sedimentological, and geochemical studies on data and sample material of SO79 came to the following results: a small-scaled variation in thickness respectively type of surface sediments shown by the sediment echosounder respectively the side-scan-sonar is assumably due to variations in deposition or erosion. The composition of sediments is controlled by climatic cycles of different length which were caused by the variable influence of glaciation of the northern hemisphere. We think that during the quaternary a deep-water circulation reduced in intensity and O2-content may have produced a suboxic diagenetic environment which led to a remobilization and redeposition of Mn forming manganese nodules in the oxic surface sediments. Near the distinct redox boundary at about 10 cm depth the growth conditions for nodules are extremely favourable. Due to the great variability of sediments the impact of deep-sea mining will be highly variable and the disturbance of the seafloor will change the ecosystem considerably.