A geophysical, geochemical and microbiological study of a newly discovered pockmark with active gas seepage and submarine groundwater discharge (MET1-BH, central Gulf of Gdańsk, southern Baltic Sea).

High-resolution bathymetric data were collected with a multi-beam echosounder in the southern part of the Baltic Sea (region MET1, Gulf of Gdańsk) revealing the presence of a 10 m deep and 50 m in diameter pockmark (MET1-BH) on the sea bottom (78.7 m). To date, no such structures have been observed to reach this size in the Baltic Sea.

Self-reduction of the native TiO (110) surface during cooling after thermal annealing - in-operando investigations.

We investigate the thermal reduction of TiO in ultra-high vacuum. Contrary to what is usually assumed, we observe that the maximal surface reduction occurs not during the heating, but during the cooling of the sample back to room temperature. We describe the self-reduction, which occurs as a result of differences in the energies of defect formation in the bulk and surface regions.

Deep sea habitats in the chemical warfare dumping areas of the Baltic Sea.

The Baltic Sea is a severely disturbed marine ecosystem that has previously been used as a dumping ground for Chemical Warfare Agents (CW). The presence of unexploded underwater ordnance is an additional risk factor for offshore activities and an environmental risk for the natural resources of the sea. In this paper, the focus is on descriptions of the marine habitat based on the observations arising from studies linked to the CHEMSEA, MODUM and DAIMON projects.

Large-area high-quality graphene on Ge(001)/Si(001) substrates.

Various experimental data revealing large-area high-quality graphene films grown by the CVD method on Ge(001)/Si(001) substrates are presented. SEM images have shown that the structure of nano-facets is formed on the entire surface of Ge(001), which is covered by a graphene layer over the whole macroscopic sample surface of 1 cm(2). The hill-and-valley structures are positioned 90° to each other and run along the <100> direction.

Seasonal and diel variability of the underwater noise in the Baltic Sea.

The results of ambient sea noise measurements performed in strongly stratified shallow basins in the southern Baltic Sea are presented. The experiments were conducted with an autonomous hydroacoustic buoy that was equipped with two omnidirectional hydrophones located inside and outside the seasonal waveguide. Data were collected in two areas with contrastingly diverse sound propagation conditions-at the Bornholm Deep in winter and at the Gdansk Deep in summer.