Abstract:
This document represents the cruise report of the highly successful Leg 1 of the R/V Knorr cruise to the Black Sea (Cruise
134-8) as a joint Turkish-American Oceanographic Expedition (Izmir to Istanbul, April 16 to May 7,1988).
The focus of Leg 1 was to study the biogeohemical variability in sedimentation in the present and throughout the anoxic
history of the Black Sea with high spatial and temporal resolution. In particular, this study involved the integrated study of water
column fluxes (sediment traps, suspended sediment investigations, etc.), benthic boundary layer ("fluff layer"), and laminated
bottom sediments (box cores, giant gravity cores). Highlights of the cruise include the collection of 62 giant gravity cores, and
30 box cores with perfectly laminated sediment and, for the first time ever, with the intact fluff layer. Three moorings with time-series
sediment traps were deployed in the abyssal regions of the eastern, central, and western Black Sea to collect continuous
samples over a time period of about 1 year and 3 months.
Summarized in the cruise report are logistics of the cruise, sample collections and descriptions, and preliminary
discussions of observations and first measurements.
