SONNE SO214

The 214th expedition of the German research vessel SONNE (9 March – 22 April 2011) takes place in the sw-Pacific Ocean off the east coast of New Zealand. Many active seep are located there at the Hikurangi Margin. These seeps exhibit a strong variability. During the expedition the scientists of the NEMESYS project investigate known seeps in more detail with geochemical and geophysical methods. Previous knowledge about these variations will be augmented by using dense nets of sensors and 3-D measurements. Besides the short-term-measurements during the cruise, the comparison with earlier cruises (SO-191, RV TANGAROA) will provide additional information to study long-term variations. Project coordinator and chief scientist during the cruise is Dr Jörg Bialas from the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences (IFM-GEOMAR) in Kiel, Germany. Besides further scientists from IFM-GEOMAR colleagues from the German Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), from the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (Texel, Netherlands) and from the Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences (GNS, Lower Hutt, New Zealand) participate in the project, too.