11.06.-15.06.2019
In the last week of the cruise MSM 83 of Maria S. Merian we finished our work. After recovering the deep-sea moorings at the eastern Flemish Cap on the weekend of Pentecost, a high-resolution station section was made across the deep western boundary current. This leans very closely to the eastern flank of the Flemish cap, so that the station distances were sometimes only 2 nautical miles. After reaching the top of the cap, we crossed into the Flemish Pass. This is a shallow channel located west of the Flemish Cap. While most of the North Atlantic Deep Water has to dodge the cap and flow around it with the boundary current system, a shallower part of the deep water may take the shortcut through the Flemish Pass. With a sill depth of about 1200m, it permits the southward flow of at least Labrador Sea Water. The mooring recovered from the passage is intended to provide information about this proportion of Labrador Sea Water.
After the passage program was over, we headed back over the flat cap into the boundary current area on the east side of the flank. After two remaining CTD stations, we redeployed the mooring BM-22 on Thursday morning, thus ending our research. On the way to St. John’s were then the cleanup and dismantling work. Furthermore, the reports had to be written and the data backed up. The real work then begins at home, when it comes to the evaluation of the data obtained and the interpretation of the results. Thus, another labor-intensive and successful research cruise comes to an end. It only remains to say that we would like to thank Captain Maaß and his entire crew very much for the great support and cooperation granted to us throughout the past weeks. Greetings on behalf of all cruise participants,
Dagmar Kieke (Chief Scientist)