Head of the expedition Chief Researcher of the IO RAS DSc (Geological and Mineralogical Sciences) E.V. Ivanova.
The scientific program of the expedition included
- study of the seismoacoustic structure, composition and distribution of deep-water Quaternary deposits in the Vima fault, on the Ceara Rise and in the Amazon alluvial fan (outside the Brazilian economic zone), identification and correlation of seismoacoustic facies to establish the effect of near-bottom circulation on sedimentation, identification of sources of lateral and vertical sedimentation;
- hydrophysical measurements in deep-sea transform fault passages of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) to obtain new information about the structure of the Antarctic Bottom Water Layer (AABW), assess the transport of near-bottom and deep waters through the Guiana Basin, water exchange between the Western and Eastern Atlantic;
- filtration of water samples to separate suspended matter in order to assess the contribution of the suspended matter of the Amazon to sedimentation;
- accompanying observations of cloudiness, solar radiation, wave parameters;
- incidental observations of marine mammals;
- incidental sampling of the surface water layer to analyze the composition and abundance of microplankton.
To solve the tasks set, geological and geophysical, hydrophysical and hydrochemical studies were carried out at the test sites and stations, as well as passing observations along the route of the vessel from the port of Kaliningrad to the Vima test site - a section through the Guiana Basin (including the Ceara rise) to the Doldrums fault - the Vima test site east 2 - port of Kaliningrad.
During the expedition, 6670 nautical miles were covered with the seismic profiler SES-2000 deep.
Works were carried out at 45 deep-water stations: 20 cores and 5monoliths of bottom sediments were obtained, 23 soundings of the water column from the surface to the bottom and 10 soundings of the upper 50 m were made using the SBE19plus V2 profiler with sampling by the SBE32 Carousel system from Niskin system bathometers, sampling and filtering were carried out water from the bottom and surface layers at 28 stations.
More than 5000 spectrophotometric analyzes (determination of color characteristics) of bottom sediments, macro-description and photography of 10 cores, 1533 hydrochemical analyzes were performed on board. A preliminary micropaleontological determination of the age of the deposits was made and the presence of redeposition of an older foraminifera fauna was determined. Bottom and surface water was filtered at 28 hydrophysical stations.
A science day was held for the crew.
An informational article with preliminary results of the expedition was submitted for publication in the Oceanology journal.
