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Fig 3 - On-board chemical analysis.jpg
Romania's Carmen Hamchevici processes suspended solids
Fig 1 - Processing suspended solids 2.jpg
Romania's Mary Craciun processes suspended solids
Fig 2 - Sediment sieving.jpg
The Czech Republic's Hana Hudcova sieving sediment
Fig 4 - preparing sample containers.jpg
Preparing the sample containers
Fig 5 - goulash a la Csanyi 2.jpg
Goulash á la Csányi
Location map

The “Chemical Trio” gets a restThe “Chemical Trio” gets a rest

Date: 
26.08.2007
Sampling Site: 
28
Location: Upstream end of Szentendre Island (arm), Hungary
Thanks to some escalated JDS2 efforts yesterday, today's Sunday programme was reduced to two sampling sites (in the Danube and Szentendre Arm) at the beginning of Szentendre Island near the imposing cliffs and castle of Visegrad. This meant that the JDS2 team could afford a unique luxury - sleeping in a bit longer than usual -- welcomed by all as the survey until now had been a rather exhausting experience, starting at about six each morning and ending late each evening.


The "Chemical Trio" -- Carmen Hamchevici and Mary Craciun from Romania, and Hana Hudcova from the Czech Republic - probably appreciated the late wake-up most as their day-to-day workload usually forces them to stay in the Argus ship's laboratory until midnight. The reason is that, next to processing all of the water, sediment and suspended solid samples to be sent for chemical and isotope analyses at on-land laboratories, they also have to carry out many on-board analyses. This includes entering results into databases, sending data to the JDS2 website and preparing sampling containers for the next day. Considering only the chemical analyses required at one sampling site, more than 20 different bottles, flasks and vessels are needed and they all have to be carefully prepared and labelled. Otherwise, any mistake could lead to destroying the whole sample. In the end, even such a simple looking activity is actually quite time-consuming and requires the full attention of the dedicated chemists.

Fortunately, some other team members have been lending a hand to the "Chemical Trio". Serbian biologist Momir Paunovic has been helping with some heavy work, operating the continuous-flow centrifuge. And Matus Haviar from the Slovak national team supported the sediment sieving.

By the end of the day, the ships proceeded to the Ujpest harbour, and the JDS2 Core Team spent a warm evening at the house of Team Leader Béla Csányi -- enjoying a genuine home-made Hungarian cauldron (bogrács) of bean goulash.

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  • The JDS2 will soon arrive at its final destination in Tulcea, Romania, after many days in Romanian waters. Above the water, Romanian scientists have been extremely active since the survey began.
  • The Danube is the most famous river. Then there are the hundreds of other rivers that flow into the Danube, resulting in the ‘Danube River Basin' covering an enormous area of Europe.
  • Early in the morning of the 27th, the ships went through a three-hour border check before passing again back into Romania from Ukraine.
  • On Saturday morning (September 1), the JDS2 had an extensive check-up by Hungarian Customs and Immigration at the Hungarian-Croatian border.