began with station #1 (the same Mediterranean Sea inflow station #48 from Leg #8) and then a transect off the shelf into slope water to obtain sediment cores before returning to the same west central station (Station 4) as in the previous legs 172/7 and 172/8. We spent most of one day at this station to document any chemical changes over the month duration of these cruise legs. The cruise then departed toward the Bosphorus and station 5 was occupied to document possible similar chemical behavior with station 4. Then a north-south transect was performed and stations 6 through 8 were occcupied. Station 8 provided meaningful sediment slope cores and a transect towards station 1(10) occurred to resample the Mediterranean Sea inflow. Stations 11 and 12 were then occupied to obtain sediment cores. Stations 13(1 and 10 revisited) and 14 were then occupied prior to returning to port.

During this cruise all stations were in Turkish or international waters and all stations were in water depths greater than 80m. We conducted both water column and bottom sediment sampling.