2 July. Day 10. Novosibirsk MV re-visited…

Our today sampling profile intersected Novosibirsk MV, also located along the Gydratny fault. This new set of cores (10!) complements other numerous stations collected during the previous Class@Baikal expeditions.

Express geochemical data indicate a substantial increase in gas content in the sediments from Novosibirsk MV.

The coring station from the summit of the mud volcano provided a complete recovery of mud breccia. These sediments consists of poorly lithified subrounded clayey clast displaying different colour and lithology, ranging in size from few mm up to 6 cm within a silty/sandy matrix.

Distinct flows identified in the core indicate different phases of activity of the mud volcano. The absence of any capping layer of diatom ooze indicates that the structure has been recently erupting.

Strong degassing was observed at the bottom of the core where dissociation of micro crystals of gas hydrate was ongoing. Underwater camera records also showed intense bubbling from the bottom of the corer indicating dissociation of gas hydrates within the water column.

In the evening we all congratulated with Sofia for her birthday. Happy birthday!

Pavel presented his acoustic and sampling results collected from several lakes.

Too late and too cold tonight to do our seminar lecture in the front deck. The last core arrived on board after dinner and certainly did not help us to speed things up.

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Text: Adriano and team

Photo: Marina and team