It’s been a while since you’ve last heard from us. Meanwhile, we’ve been working hard to collect and measure samples. After visiting the Landsort Deep on Saturday, we moved forward to the northern Gotland Basin on Sunday, also a site with sulphide in its bottom waters. We left the anoxic sites on Monday to sample an oxygenated site in the eastern part of the Gotland Basin.
On Monday evening, during deployment of the lander, its cable got stuck in one of the ship’s propellers. This meant we needed a diver to remove this cable, and so we unexpectedly spent a few hours in Ventspils, Latvia, on Tuesday afternoon. We even got the chance to dip our feet into the Baltic Sea at the Ventspils beach. This day was however also a good opportunity to have a science meeting in which we discussed our first results, and early evening we set sail again.
On Monday evening, during deployment of the lander, its cable got stuck in one of the ship’s propellers. This meant we needed a diver to remove this cable, and so we unexpectedly spent a few hours in Ventspils, Latvia, on Tuesday afternoon. We even got the chance to dip our feet into the Baltic Sea at the Ventspils beach. This day was however also a good opportunity to have a science meeting in which we discussed our first results, and early evening we set sail again.
On Wednesday, we visited another site in the Gotland Basin. This site showed an extremely interesting oxygen trend with depth in the water column, which could directly be linked to water mass changes. In December 2014, a big amount of North Sea water flowed into the Baltic Sea. This North Sea water, which is more saline and therefore heavier than the Baltic Sea water, enters the Baltic Sea at depth and therefore pushes these deep waters further north. This replacement of water masses is still ongoing and we don’t exactly know how far the effect of the inflow has moved into the Baltic Sea. At this site, we could clearly see more oxygenated waters at depth, that are indicative of the inflow effect.
Thursday we sampled the Farö Deep, a 193 m deep site that also has sulphidic bottom waters. After that, it was time to move into the Stockholm Archipelago. This means that we saw other things than just water at the horizon. The pictures give a little impression of how beautiful it was. In the Archipelago we sampled three locations. At the moment we’re on our way to the entrance to the Bothnian Sea, where we will again sample two sites.
So far, the weather during our trip has been amazing: clear skies and not much wind. Of course we hope it will stay this way!
Thursday we sampled the Farö Deep, a 193 m deep site that also has sulphidic bottom waters. After that, it was time to move into the Stockholm Archipelago. This means that we saw other things than just water at the horizon. The pictures give a little impression of how beautiful it was. In the Archipelago we sampled three locations. At the moment we’re on our way to the entrance to the Bothnian Sea, where we will again sample two sites.
So far, the weather during our trip has been amazing: clear skies and not much wind. Of course we hope it will stay this way!