TRANSMOW Cruise, RV Hespérides

Abstract

The objective of the TRANSMOW cruise twofold: in the first place, to sample the waters on their previous and outgoing route from the Mediterranean MOW (Mediterranean outflows water) along the western Mediterranean, the Gulf of Cádiz and the Iberian-Atlantic and Cantabrian margins, and secondly, to sample marine surface sediments and long cores following depth transects at key points of the described trajectory. The motivation for this sampling arises from the new possibilities opened up with the recent development of the LIRA-Panthalassa laboratories, unique leading analytical infrastructures in Spain that allow to be carried out a new type of chemical and geological oceanography , until now inaccessible to the Spanish community. Specifically, it is intended to characterize in detail the signal of isotopes of Nd (εNd) and rare earths (REE) of the leaving waters of the Mediterranean, among other physical-chemical parameters. Sediment sampling is intended to validate the transmission of this signal in the geological record and thus apply this knowledge in the analysis of the oceanographic evolution of the MOW at different time scales in relation to past climate transitions