Trace Element on EARTH Magazine

Elemental Traces in the Atlantic: An encouraging start, an inauspicious end

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:51:09 -0500

Jeremy Jacquot

Follow my blog at EARTH online, "Elemental Traces in the Atlantic," over the next couple of months, where I’ll be writing from the ship and detailing the scientific journey. And stay tuned early next year, when EARTH and I will bring you a wrap-up of the cruise. Read the original story here.

It's been just over two weeks since we set sail from Lisbon, Portugal, on our 52-day journey across the North Atlantic. Over that brief span of time, we've already managed to collect, filter and analyze hundreds of seawater samples and begun to generate what will likely be the most comprehensive dataset of the region.

Elemental Traces in the Atlantic: The art of clean sampling

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:51:09 -0500

The crew prepares to deploy a trace-metal clean rosette system. Jeremy Jacquot

Follow my blog at EARTH online, "Elemental Traces in the Atlantic," over the next couple of months, where I’ll be writing from the ship and detailing the scientific journey. And stay tuned early next year, when EARTH and I will bring you a wrap-up of the cruise. Read the original story here.

Think of the cleanest, most meticulous person you know and multiply that attention to detail by about an order of magnitude. That’s what it takes to be considered trace-metal “clean.”

Elemental Traces in the Atlantic: The final chapter

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 03:51:09 -0500

Trace metal sampling equipment. Jeremy Jacquot

The inspection of the faulty drive shaft confirmed the worst of the engineers’ fears: The GEOTRACES cruise would have to end early.

With only a few precious days of sampling left before we would have to pack it all in, we made haste to the last four sampling stops situated off the coast of Mauritania.

Tracking trace elements and isotopes in the oceans

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 06:41:58 -0500

A report from the GEOTRACES cruise across the Atlantic

For decades, scientists have been trying to piece together the enormously complicated puzzle that is the ocean. They have collected many different kinds of information, from trace elements like iron to tritium isotopes, from many different parts of the ocean. Bringing together these disparate pieces to form a more complete picture is crucial to understanding how human activities, the marine food web, the global carbon cycle and the circulation of seawater are all interconnected.