Anoxic basins provided extreme oceanographic coniditions caused by the absence of oxygen and the presence of reduced substances. Furthermore, the boundary between the oxic and anoxic waters is useful for studying the rates of oxidation and reduction reactions. The Black Sea is the definitive anoxic basin. It is the world's largest permanently anoxic basin because unlike other stagnant basins that are intermittently anoxic, the Black Sea provides a steady state system with an anoxic water replacement time of 2000 years. There have been periodic cruises by U.S. research vessels and U.S. scientists to the Black Sea and these provide the data base for this expedition, no U.S. research vessel has visited the Black Sea since 1975. This expedition will apply the latest analytical techniques for trace elements and gases, some new sampling devices, new techniques for studying microbially medicated oxidation and reduction rates. Current models of elemental cycling in an integrated study of the water column and sediments of the Black Sea.
