FS Poseidon PO527
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |||||||||
| Ship name (ship code) | FS Poseidon (06PO) | ||||||||
| Cruise identifier | PO527 | ||||||||
| Cruise period | 2018-08-15 — 2018-09-03 | ||||||||
| Status | Completed | ||||||||
| Port of departure | Kiel, Germany | ||||||||
| Port of return | Kiel, Germany | ||||||||
| Purpose | Research | ||||||||
| Objectives | Poseidon cruise 527 took place in the framework of the Horizon 2020 project STEMM-CCS of the European Union (EU). The project's main goal is to develop and test strategies and technologies for the monitoring of sub-seafloor CO2 storage operations. In this context, a small research-scale CO2 gas release experiment is planned for May 2019 near the Goldeneye platform located in the British EEZ (central North Sea).
The goal of cruise POS527 was to collect the necessary oceanographic and biogeochemical baseline data prior to this release experiment. The cruise focussed on the region in the direct vicinity of the Goldeneye platform in the North Sea (80 nm northeast of Aberdeen). During the cruise, CTD casts were undertaken to study the water column chemistry in the study region. In addition, an MPI lander was deployed on a number of occasions for high-precision benthic flux measurements of O2, CO2 and pH in the bottom waters at Goldeneye. Push cores from box cores and gravity cores were collected in the area for sediment biogeochemical analyses. Box coring was also conducted to obtain macrofauna samples for diversity investigations. Multibeam surveys were conducted at times that no sampling activities were undertaken (mainly evenings and nights) in order to extend our bathymetric coverage of the Goldeneye region. We conducted continuous atmospheric measurements of CH4, CO2, and water partial pressures during the cruise. Benthic oxygen measurements were conducted in selected sediment cores using microelectrodes in order to assess variations in oxygen consumption rates in various contrasting sites in the Goldeneye region. Lab on chip sensors were deployed on CTD casts as well as on the MPI benthic lander. It was envisaged to retrieve a Develogic benthic lander in the Goldeneye region, then service this lander and redeploy. This lander is equipped with a suite of sensors to monitor temperature, conductivity, pressure, current speed and direction, hydroacoustic, pH, pCO2, O2 and nutrients over a period of about 10 months (since deployment in October 2017 during cruise POS518). Popup telemetry units for data transmission via IRIDIUM satellite telemetry were supposed to be released every 3 months. The pop-up buoys have not properly functioned so far, with only one recently found in a fjord in northern Norway. On our cruise, we were not able to communicate with the lander, and could not retrieve and service it. We now plan to retrieve the lander in May 2019 with the help of a ROV. | ||||||||
| Chief scientist | Eric Pieter Achterberg (GEOMAR Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel (East Shore Campus)) | ||||||||
| Cruise report |  (4.55 MB) | ||||||||
| NPRC | (3.32 MB) | ||||||||
| Ocean/sea areas | |||||||||
| General | North Sea | ||||||||
| Specific | Goldeneye Gas Platform | ||||||||
| Data held at BODC | Get data | ||||||||
| Series/Profiles | |||||||||
| 1 Multi-beam echosounder | Reference numbers Horizontal spatial co-ordinates Bathymetry and Elevation
|
