Expedition Blog

Expedition MSM83

Las Palmas – St. John’s, 17.05.-15.06.2019

Research Vessel Maria S. Merian

Weekly Report 1

Last Friday, 17.05.2019, the research vessel Maria S. Merian left the bunker pier of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, at pleasant warm temperatures to set out on her cruise MSM83. Over the next few weeks, teams from the University of Bremen (IUP/MARUM) and the Federal Maritime and Hydrographic Agency (BSH) Hamburg will carry out physical-oceanographic studies of ocean circulation and water mass exchange in the North Atlantic. Read more

Weekly Report 2

At the beginning of the second week of our cruise MSM83, we made several stops on the way to the Irish shelfbreak to check and test the proper functioning of our equipment. Firstly, we made sure that our main ship-based water sampling system, with attached CTDO unit and currentmeters meters, was fully functional. Read more

Weekly Report 3


In the third week of the “Maria S. Merian” cruise MSM83 we crossed the deep Western European Basin to the west and continued our course along 47°/48°N. Since 2016, there are three so-called PIES at the bottom of this basin, inverted bottom echo-sounders, which are equipped with an additional pressure sensor. Read more

Weekly Report 4


In the 4th week of the MSM 83 cruise we carried out measurements along the western part of the hydrographic section along 47°N, from the Mid-Atlantic Ridge to the continental slope at the Flemish Cap. For this purpose, the CTDO probe, which records the pressure, temperature, salt and oxygen content of the water, was lowered to the seabed at 30 stations and brought back to the deck. Read more

Weekly Report 5

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. Read more