Marine sediment core samples from the western Arctic expedition in 2013

Marine geology program is conducted during the 4th ARAON Arctic Expedition in 2013. Geological stations were selected based on the study objectives, and their locations were specified using multi-beam bathymetric mapping and sub-bottom profiles. Coring was carried out using several devices. To retrieve the sediment cores at selected geological and oceanographic stations we used different coring gears such as box corer, multiple corers and gravity corer. A box corer (BOX) (50x50x60cm) and a multiple corer (MUC) with 8 tubes were used to obtain surface sediments. For relatively long sediment cores, we used a gravity corer (GC) with 3 or 6-m long barrel. Once retrieved on deck, gravity cores were cut up in lengths of 1.5m and labeled.
Overall goal of marine geology for the 4th ARAON Arctic cruise is to take new and undisturbed sediment cores from the selected research target areas including the East Siberian-Chukchi Sea and Beaufort Sea in the western Arctic Ocean. To achieve the study objectives we employed the following geological/geophysical methods: 1) coring seafloor sediment with a gravity corer for sediment composition and stratigraphy (up to ~5 m deep), 2) coring with a multiple corer/box corer for modern/recent seafloor processes.