February 2003

On Thursday and Friday this week an EUROPROX-workshop is taking place at the University of Bremen. It is orgianzied by the European Graduate College "Proxies in Earth History". For two days 38 scientists from Amsterdam, Utrecht and Bremen come together in the building of the Faculty of Geo Sciences to discuss about "proxies" with which the climatic and environmental history of (sub)tropical or polar regions can be reconstructed.

As f.e. sea water temperatures of the past hundred of thousands of years cannot be measured directly, the EUROPROX-scientists look for parameters from which approximated values can be calculated. For the reconstruction of past temperatures oxygen isotopes (O16/O18) are such proxies. They are "found" in the calcerous shells of microfossils, which were deposited on the seafloor in the earth`s past.

For further details see: www.europrox.de

Investigating Bio-Bio canyon on board of KayKay

Scientists from the DFG research center are at work around the world, on large and small research ships. While one large group is presently working off the Namibian coast on board the "Meteor", five Bremen marine scientists are leaving today for Chile. There they will join colleagues from the Center for Oceanographic Research in the Eastern South Pacific. Not far from the city of Concepcion, with a population of about 800,000, the cooperative work will concentrate on depositional processes in an undersea canyon. The canyon is located near the mouth of the Bío-Bío River. It acts as a basin, collecting sediment (including, unfortunately, the garbage of humans) that is transported into the sea by the Bio-Bio river.

The geophysicists and geologists working off the mouth of the Bío-Bío River are on board the "KayKay", a Chilean cutter that is only 20 meters long. Because there is not a large amount of space available for water and stores, the expeditions have to be limited to a duration of three days.

The geophysicists will install their instruments on the "KayKay" this coming Monday. Beginning on Tuesday a so-called seismic profile will be recorded. These "sound pictures" of the sea floor show the scientists how and where sediments are deposited in Bío-Bío canyon. When the geophysicists return to shore, then it's time for the geologists to go to work. They will sample sediments in the canyon in order to find out how the sediments are supplied, where they come from and, if possible, how and where they are further transported.

After the work is completed, the samples and data will be analyzed in Concepcion and in Bremen. In the end, the workers will have added a few more pieces to the puzzle that is our planet earth, making it a little more complete.

Printed matter

The news of the week came in this past Monday. The "American Association for the Advancement of Science" (AAAS), publisher of the renowned trade journal Science, disclosed that an article by a scientist of the Research Centre Ocean Margins will appear in the February 21 edition. The paper deals with increased amounts of methane in ancient coastal seas. The principal author is Prof. Kai-Uwe Hinrichs. The geochemist has been a member of the DFG Research Centre Ocean Margins since last fall. He earned his PhD in Oldenburg and later worked at Woods Hole Institute for Oceanography, which is located on Cape Cod in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.

The work coming up in Science by Prof. Hinrichs and his American colleagues was largely developed during his stay in Woods Hole. Along with other respected publications this work marks a new high-point in the short history of the research center. It indicates that the initial setup phase of the center is in large part completed. In the past year and a half new rooms have been occupied, professors and junior professors have been appointed, and positions have been created for scientists and technicians. The organization also required the creation of new working groups. The present task is to create a positive scientific profile for the research center. The forthcoming publication in Science, an article that recently appeared in the journal Nature, and another Nature article expected in March illustrate the positive reputation that science in the research center is building, and that it is already on the right course for the future.

P.S.: A press release describing the work in Prof. Henrich's Science publication will appear at the beginning of next week and can be viewed on our web site Press Releases.

Stopover for RV "Meteor"

The first leg of the current expedition of the Research Vessel "Meteor" comes to an end tomorrow, Saturday, with its arrival in the Namibian harbor of Walvis Bay. The present team of 28 scientists will disembark to return to their home institutions. "For me the team play with six colleagues from South-Africa is one of the highlights of this leg", anounces senior scientist Dr. Ralph Schneider via email. "The outcome of this perhaps will be an even closer cooperation between our Research Center and the University of Capetown."

A new crew of scientists is already en route to Walvis Bay to take over for the next leg. The scientific cruise leader for the second leg, Dr. Matthias Zabel, will be joined by colleagues from the DFG-supported Research Centre Ocean Margins, the Institute for Baltic Sea Research at Warnemünde, and Bremen's Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology. A Namibian colleague from the National Marine Information and Research Center Swakopmund will also be working with the team on theMeteor.

Namibia's largest newspaper, "The Namibian", reports on the research cruise and the theme, "ocean mysteries", in both its print and online editions (To read the article please click in the column to the right). Radio Bremen will accompany the cruise with regular on-board interviews.

The RV Meteor will depart Walvis Bay again on the morning of February 11. By that time all the scientific instruments must be loaded, fuel tanks topped off, and stores replenished. The second leg will last until March 12, when a short port call in Walvis Bay will again be made.