Currently, our team members Ignacio Pedre and Nico Fröhberg are aboard research vessel Sonne in the Indian Ocean sampling the hydrothermal plume emitted into the ocean by the Kairei vent field for the KABA research project. We use sensors for turbidity (particles emitted by the hydrothermal vents into the water) and ORP (oxidation reduction potential) to track the location of the plume with the tides and acquire water samples using MARUM’s new autonomous trace metal rosette “Tracey” which is made from titanium and deployed on a Kevlar rope to avoid metal contamination of the water samples.
For a more detailed description of the project, see our project page here: https://andrea-koschinsky.org/research-projects/kaba/
