Expedition onboard RV “G.Yu. Vereshchagin”, August 19 – 29, 2019

The joint expedition with the Japanese colleagues 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”, the commercial contract and the Russian-Belgian Multi-phase Gas Hydrate Project was carried out onboard RV “G.Yu. Vereshchagin”, August 19 – 29, 2019 in Southern, Central and Northern Baikal.

The aim of the expedition was to organise and conduct geological and geophysical studies of bottom sediments and gas hydrates near gas seepages and mud volcanoes, identify new underwater topographic structures discovered, surveying of the bottom by multi-beam echosounder.

During the expedition, 95 cores of bottom sediments and gas hydrates were sampled to study their distribution in the sediment strata as well as the lithological and grain-size composition of hydrate-bearing bottom sediments and the crystallographic properties of hydrates. There were six discoveries of new sites with near-surface gas hydrates. Pore water from the cores was sampled to analyse the chemical composition, and the dissolved gas was sampled to study the isotopic and elemental composition.