CE12010 ECO2@NorthSea

Night time activity will mainly consist of the following: Deployments of a video-guided Pump-CTD connected to Membrane Inlet Mass Spectrometry. Hydroacoustic detection of gas bubbles using single/split beam echo sounders. The following activity will largely be undertaken during day time : Deployment of landers to perform in situ gas flux measurements. Deployment of ROV Kiel 6000 for detailed sampling of sediments and deployment of instruments on the seafloor. Deployment of a vibrocorer for recovery of long sediment cores for porewater analysis. (10 cores total) On the cruise, proposed here, we wish to investigate the Sleipner CO2 storage site operated by Statoil and the blow out site in UK waters . We intend to quantify fluxes of key chemical parameters and potentially toxic metals and study the mechanisms determining the migration of CO2, CH4, and formation waters through the sedimentary overburden by a variety of novel monitoring techniques. Included in the study are investigations of seawater chemistry together with the near-field dispersion processes as key input parameters for our environmental studies and numerical model simulations. We will also carry out the assessment of the distribution of sensitive megafauna and will use fingerprinting of microbial community diversity as a key indicator of environmental impacts (for more details see the uploaded scientific project description).