Aug 20, 2019
All-in-one: Recently discovered microbe degrades oil to gas
Microscopy suggests that the recently discovered microbe Methanoliparia produces methane from crude oil all by themselves. The tiny organisms cling to oil ...
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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.
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
Current news
Showing 121-124 of 125 items.
Jun 21, 2019
Team maintains deep sea instruments on cabled observatory
Following the successful installation of two sonar systems at the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) underwater observatory in June 2018, Dr. Yann Marcon ...
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Apr 29, 2019
Live dive to the ocean floor
The researchers of the PS119 expedition on board the POLARSTERN are currently more than 14,000 kilometers away from Bremen. What can be seen during the ...
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Apr 11, 2019
Remotely operated vehicle MARUM-QUEST for the first time in Antarctic waters
Where the Earth’s plates meet, there is evidence of their motion. An expedition of the Research Vessel POLARSTERN will explore this activity in the ...
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MARUM is home to the Cluster of Excellence ›The Ocean Floor - Earth's Uncharted Interface‹.