12 groups of HF penetrations in the bottom sediment, located along two corridors in the Ionian Sea, running W-E (from the Sicily Channel to the Matapan Trench) and NE-SW (from the Matapan Trench, across the Mediterranean Ridge, up to the Syrte Basin), respectively

Other fluxes between the bed and the water column

Optical microscopes

GTA and ARGUS probes are programmable, multi-penetration instruments equipped with thermistors for in situ determinations in the sea bottom of both temperature (T) and thermal conductivity (K) versus depth. Penetration into the sediment is obtined by gravity. ARGUS records continuously (10 s sampling rate) T samples from its 16 sensors, both when in water and in the sediment. Normally, a HF estimate for each penetration is requested; in SINAPSI experiment, on the contrary, the important results are the vertical distributions of T and K in the sediment. Due to descent of warm, saline water from Egean Sea into the Matapan Trench, the boundary conditions at the top of the sediment suddently changed (about half a degree higher), inducing an important thermal perturbance, presently affecting the first few meters of the deep sea sediments, to penetrate progressively into the sea bottom. Careful sampling of this perturbed thermal field in the mud allows us to estimate both amplitude and age of the thermal event in the water mass. So, the goal of these measurements is to understand the space- and time- evolution of the transient climatic event now in progress in the Ionian Sea waters, monitoring its thermal signal in the sea bottom and comparing the actual data with those acquired in 1993

University of Trieste, Department of Civil Engineering
Division of Georesources and Environmental Engineering Via A. Valerio, 10
Trieste

34127
Italy