Институт по океанология "Фритьоф Нансен"

Laboratory of lithodynamics

The laboratory processes sediment samples collected from the beach and the underwater coastal slope, performing grain size analyses (sieve -dry or wet) and hydrometer analysis (according to BSS 2762/1983).

A set of sieves with openings from 5 to 0.063 mm, an electronic scale Precisa 320 XT1200C and a sieve shaker Retsch AS 200 control are used for dry sieve analysis.

For hydrometer analysis, a hydrometer is used to read the density of the suspension, a thermometer for a temperature range from 0 to 40 ° C, a stopwatch, a glass cylinder, a stirrer for beating the sample, a mixer for homogenizing the suspension, etc.

After the analysis, the nature of the substrate is determined by two methods (BSS 2761-86 / BSS-676-85) and after Wentworth-Folk (Wentworth, 1922; Folk, 1954). Given the specificity of marine bottom substrates, instead of the name for construction soils “powder” is used “mud”, and for gravel it is specified whether it is “gravel” or “shells”. The results of the analyses performed are presented in laboratory records containing sample metadata (such as name, location and time of sampling), type of analysis, fractional distribution in tabular and graphical forms, substrate type according to the two classifications mentioned above.