Home · News · Floating University – 2 ISblue Students in a Seaside Camp – Summer 2021

Floating University – 2 ISblue Students in a Seaside Camp – Summer 2021

The Floating University of the GHASS-2 oceanographic campaign started on 16 August 2021. This campaign at sea aboard the “Pourquoi Pas?” (a vessel in the French oceanographic fleet) is looking at underwater instabilities and fluid circulation in sediments in the Black Sea.

Six Masters students from different universities (including two students from the UBO-IUEM ‘Marine and Coastal Sciences’ Masters) will be taking part in the scientific activities on board until the 4th of September. They will be supervised on board by Grégory Ballas (principal supervisor, Geosciences Montpellier), with support on land from Jacques Deverchère (co-supervisor, University of Western Brittany (UBO)) and Jeffrey Poort (co-supervisor, Sorbonne University). The EUR ISblue is supporting this training operation by funding the transport of the two UBO students selected.

The students invite you to follow their experience through messages, photographs and videos to be found on:

IFREMER blog

Twitter: @UF_GHASS2

Instagram: @uf_ghass2

GHASS 2 – Gas Hydrates, fluid Activities and Sediment deformations in the black Sea

The mission scheduled from 16/08 to 03/09 on the “Pourquoi Pas?” in the Black Sea, departing from the port of Constanta in Romania, involves 70 people on board.

Two IUEM students from Brest have been selected to take part in the mission: Léa Giannecchini (M1 Marine Chemistry) and Justine Flahaut (M1 Earth and Planetary Sciences, Environment). The 4 other students are from the University of Montpellier and Sorbonne Universities.

The GHASS-2 campaign is dedicated to the evolution of hydrate systems presumed to be responsible for several submarine landslides. The aim is to understand the processes involved in the methane cycle and the dissociation of gas hydrates. The Floating University Leg involves seismic and SMF acquisition, on-site measurements (penfeld, piezo, CTD-rosette, and atmosphere) and 2 days of SMF-water column acquisition (sampling and on-site measurements during dives).

After completing a degree in Sea Studies at Lumini (13), Léa joined the IUEM Marine Chemistry Master 1 programme. She gave us her impressions before leaving: “I had the choice of applying for three campaigns at sea, and GHASS-2 was the most relevant for me, as the methane cycle is of particular interest to me. She was looking forward to the mission: “I’m going to learn a lot and it will be a plus in my training”.

This scientific project aims to understand what is happening on the seabed of the Black Sea and to compare the data collected in 2015 during the first GHASS mission. This study will help us to understand the overall impact of the mechanisms observed on the marine environment and even on the climate.