Started research program: scientists drill the Baltic Sea - N24

researchers want new insights into the origins of the Sea win with holes in the Baltic Sea about 200 meters depth -., and draw conclusions on the expected climate change

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As part of an international research scientists drill program with drilling in the Baltic Sea have begun. Up to 4 November will be drilled from the drilling vessel 94 meters long “Greatship Manisha” seven hole in the Baltic Sea and the Kattegat. The cores are intended to provide information on the environmental development of the Baltic region during the last 140,000 years, said a spokesman for the Center for Marine Environmental Sciences (Marum) in Bremen. Also the history of the Baltic Sea, which came in the form now known only after the last ice age, is the focus of the investigation.

The international Ocean Drilling Program IODP (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program) was launched in 1964. The world’s largest program of its kind since 1300 ocean holes have been drilled. Now begun on the Baltic Sea project with around 30 scientists from the U.S., Japan, China and the Baltic Sea countries and geologist at the University of Greifswald are involved. “The IODP project is the largest research project ever conducted in the geosciences and will continue to be conducted,” said geologist Martin Meschede, Greifswald.

lowest-drilling 459 meters below the water surface

the sediments of the last ice age, the Weichsel glaciation, the scientists suspect the deposits of former lakes. In these sediments is the story of the last warm period, the Eemian, documented. The researchers want from Greifswald cores few thousandths of a millimeter thick Customize “thin sections” to investigate the mineral content and especially the fine structures in the cores as Meschede said. Conclusions to be drawn on the likely climate changes from the comparison with younger sediments after the end of the last ice age.

Drilled depth

in up to 220 meters below the seabed. Lowest-drilling site and also lowest point in the Baltic Sea is the Landsort in the western Gotland Basin off the Swedish coast, 459 meters below the water surface. The team of researchers and technicians want to win in drilling several kilometers of sediment cores that will be analyzed in 2014 in Bremen Core Repository of the Ocean Drilling Program. It was the first time that such a complex scientific drilling expedition in the Baltic Sea takes place, the spokesman said Marum, Bremen.

Other research teams are on board the ship. They go about microbiological issues. Only in the last few years have realized how strong microorganisms determine the chemical fingerprint of the seas, said Bo Barker Jørgensen from the Center for Geomicrobiology, Aarhus University in Denmark. Therefore should be explored, such as microbes in the Baltic Sea responded to the climatic changes between cold and warm periods. For the researchers, especially the phase is interesting, as the Baltic Sea has evolved from a freshwater to brackish water and then salinized.