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RV Cirolana CIR9A/85

Cruise summary report

Cruise Info. 
Ship name (ship code)RV Cirolana (74CZ)
Cruise identifierCIR9A/85
Cruise period1985-10-25 — 1985-11-11
StatusCompleted
Port of departureLowestoft, United Kingdom
Port of returnWorkington, United Kingdom
PurposeResearch
Objectives1. To undertake a survey of Np, Pu, Am, Cm, and Tc radionuclides in seawater and suspended particulate matter in British coastal waters.
2. To carry out speciation studies for these same elements at selected locations.
3. To deploy the near-bed rig at two locations in the Irish Sea to measure current profiles, suspended load (by transmissometry) and sample water for radionuclide analysis.
4. To investigate the behaviour of transuranic elements in sediment porewaters at two sites in the vicinity of the Sellafield discharge and to define the bio-geochemistry of the sediments by measuring various physico-chemical parameters.
5. To set up preliminary reaction-rate incubation experiments on-board the ship using freshly collected Irish Sea sediments.
6. To collect cores for the estimation of seasonal variations in the short-time-scale migration rates in sediments using thorium/uranium disequilibria.
7. To investigate the residence-time and scavenging rates of particle-reactive radionuclides using the 234Th/238U disequilibrium in the seawater/suspended solids/sea bed system of the Irish Sea.
8. To survey the distribution of benthic organisms (especially Maxmillaria lankastri) in the muddy sediments of the north east Irish Sea during the autumn season.
Chief scientistB R Harvey (Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Lowestoft Fisheries Laboratory)
Cruise reportRV Cirolana CIR9A/85 cruise report ci9a_85.pdf (0.20 MB) 
Ocean/sea areas 
GeneralNorth Sea
SpecificNorth Sea, Shetlands and Irish Sea
Track chartsRV Cirolana CIR9A/85 cruise track — trk3121.html RV Cirolana CIR9A/85 cruise track — trk3121a.html
Measurements 
Physical oceanography 
Other physical oceanographic measurementsQuantity: number of deployments = 2
Description: near-bed monitoring rig
Chemical oceanography 
Other chemical oceanographic measurementsQuantity: number of samples = 50
Description: surface seawater for radionuclides
Contamination 
Suspended matterQuantity: number of samples = 5
Trace metalsQuantity: number of samples = 1
Geology and geophysics 
Core - soft bottomQuantity: number of cores = 72