Expedition onboard RV “G.Yu. Vereshchagin”, June 23 – July 06, 2019

The expedition within the framework of the programme “Study of the Influence of Mud Volcanoes and Methane Seeps on the Biological Communities of the Abyssal Zone of Lake Baikal” was carried out onboard RV “G.Yu. Vereshchagin”, June 23 – July 06, 2019 in Southern and Northern Baikal. Fieldworks were carried out under the joint projects «Class@Baikal» (Training-through-Research Floating University) and HOTMUD (From hydrothermal systems to mud volcanoes: Planet-scale impacts of piercements in sedimentary basins).

The aim of the expedition was to organize and conduct geological and geophysical studies onboard RV “G.Yu. Vereshchagin” together with the researchers from Moscow State University and Irkutsk National Research Technical University as well as participants of the international scientific and educational project of the Research Council of Norway “From hydrothermal systems to mud volcanoes: Planet-scale impacts of piercements in sedimentary basins (HOTMUD)”.

During the expedition, a geophysical survey of some hydrate-bearing structures, an oil-seep zone and certain areas of the lake floor with canyons, fans and landslides was performed using profilograph. In total, more than 750 km of linear profiles of bottom sediments were obtained. The floor was tested with gravity corers, and 120 cores were sampled. Bottom sediments were sampled for gas-chemical and lithological investigations, as well as for chemical analysis of pore waters. Undisturbed cores were taken for the X-ray tomography investigations at Moscow State University.