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Ocean Floor

Ocean Floor

exploring & describing

The ocean floor is one of the most dynamic and geologically diverse regions on Earth. Its shape is constantly being changed by the input of sediments, their further transport and deposition as well as by submarine volcanism, earthquakes, anthropogenic influences and many other factors.

MARUM scientists deal with a broad spectrum of processes that shape the sea floor. These include current-driven sediment movement and its influence by human activities, the influence of seafloor dynamics on morphology and benthic ecosystems, as well as cascading natural hazards and their precursors. The interactions between the Earth's crust and the sediment bed at oceanic rift and spreading centers are also the focus of MARUM's research.

Some of the questions that drive our research are:

How are oceanic crust and plates formed and how do they evolve and how do they affect geochemical cycles in the ocean?
What controls slope instability and how does it affect human activities?
What processes control the transport and accumulation of sediments and other particles, such as organic carbon and plastic?
What factors control the growth of cold-water corals?

To answer those and many other questions, we apply different methods ranging from numerical modelling, analysis of sediment cores or observations of the seafloor using the technology of MARUM.

Participating Research Groups

Sampling with the diving robot MARUM-QUEST at a water depth of 520 meters on the Azores Plateau, Photo: MARUM - Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen

sea4society

Innovative approaches to improve the carbon storage potential of coastal vegetation ecosystems

(DAM Research Mission)

Pillow lava at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge axis. Photo: MARUM − Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen

AIMS3

Alternate scenarios, Innovative technologies, and Monitoring approaches for Sub-Seabed Storage of carbon dioxide

(DAM Research Mission)

Self-organized mineral structures, so-called biomorphs, which imitate living organisms but are the result of purely abiotic reactions. The size of these biomorphs is between one and 25 micrometers. Photo: Juan Manuel Garcia-Ruiz/CSIC

PROTOS

The Role of Silica in the Dawn of Life on our Planet

(ERC Synergy Grant)

Current news

Showing 61-64 of 125 items.

In the 6x11 meter flume tank, an artificial continental slope was recreated by hand. The circular photo shows first author Henriette Wilckens forming the slope from sediment. The water-filled tank can be seen in the background. Photo montage: MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental Sciences, University of Bremen, E. Miramontes

Oct 6, 2023

Deciphering the intensity of past ocean currents

Ocean currents determine the structure of the deep-sea ocean floor and the transport of sediments, organic carbon, nutrients and pollutants. In flume-tank ...

The MARUM camera installed at the ocean floor on the control screens of a remotely operated diving robot. Photo: MARUM, Eberhard Kopiske; ROV: ROPOS

Aug 23, 2023

Expedition to long-term observatory off Oregon

How much methane escapes from the ocean floor? This question is the focus of an international project in which MARUM – Center for Marine Environmental ...

The scientists are on their way with the research vessel METEOR. Here it is moored in the port of Piraeus. Photo: MARUM; S.Bühring

Aug 8, 2023

Expedition investigates hydrothermal systems in different water depths for the first time

Deep-sea hydrothermal vents, also often called black smokers because of their characteristic appearance, are a hotspot of life. The vents are often the ...

A stone coral in the Red Sea. It is one of the shallow water corals that researchers often use to reconstruct the climatic conditions of more recent times. Photo: Heinz Krimmer

May 26, 2023

New coral database for climate data of the past 2,000 years

What researchers know about climate change today is based mainly on instrumental data series of the past 150 years. For some regions there are very ...

The Ocean Floor – Earth’s Uncharted Interface

MARUM is home to the Cluster of Excellence ›The Ocean Floor - Earth's Uncharted Interface‹.