ALBERT

Description: The boundaries of the mud area of the inner German Bight have been mapped w1th a subbottom echo sounder. The echo profiles reveal a uniform sediment body which is chararterized by the occurrence of mud (clayey silt) in separate layers. The western part of the area is dominated by mud showing fine-sand intercalations, the well-known storm sand layers. The eastern part consists of fine-sand /mud alternate bedding. Primary stratification may be altered by bioturbation, particularly in the western part. However, the echographic uniformity of the mud area is almost independent of the regional variations of facies. At the southern, western, and northern boundaries the mud-area sediment body wedges out above the adjacent, more sandy sedimems. The eastern boundary is a system of sand tongues and channels with fine-sand/mud alternate bedding. Here, interfingering of sand and sand/mud facies may be a typical pattern in the depositional sequence due to occasional shifting of both sand tongues and channels. Based on hydrographic data from the German Bight the origin of the mud was ascribed mainly to the suspension load of the river Elbe. The suspended matter is transported towards north by the "Elbe water mass" which is a particular water body with lower salinity, as compared with surrounding North Sea waters. Main part of the suspension load is, however, deposited in the inner German Bight. The limits of mud deposition are given by the western and eastern boundaries of the "Elbe water" body as well as by shallower sand ridges surrounding the mud area in the south, east, and west.

Description: Basalts from the Reykjanes Ridge contain noble gases delivered from the non-degassed lower mantle by the Iceland plume. These lower mantle gases are thought to be a mixture of planetary and solar components, as would be expected if the Earth accreted from fine silicate particles.

Description: Strandings of the giant squid, Architeuthis monachus (Steen-strup), have always stirred attention because of the rarity and enormous size of these cephalopods. These animals have never been observed in their natural habitat and little is known about their physiology and ecology. Stranding of giant squids in Newfoundland waters has been correlated with the inflow of warm water, suggesting that increased temperature may be causing their death1. Squids have also been carried to the Norwegian coast with the warm North Atlantic current2 and on 23 August 1982 a live specimen was caught off Radöy near Bergen, Norway (Fig. 1). This catch gave an unprecedented opportunity to study the effects of temperature on the oxygen binding properties of blood from the giant squid. The present finding of an excess of a fourfold decrease in O2 affinity when temperature is increased from 6.4 to 15°C strongly suggests that giant squids may suffocate from arterial desaturation when increased ambient temperatures are experierced.