Oceanus-Lab

Oceanus-Lab (Laboratory of Marine Geology and Physical Oceanography) was founded in 1990, in the Department of Geology of the University of Patras, though it had already started its research activity since 1986. Since then, the lab has been established as the most complete center for research and education, in the field of Marine Sciences in Greece. Its objectives are the monitoring, mapping and preservation of the Greek and Mediterranean marine natural and cultural heritage, while it focuses on the training of young scientists, on the dissemination of research results and on informing and raising awareness among citizens and institutions, on issues related to the marine environment.

The equipment of the lab consists of state-of-the-art devices, highly effective in the thorough investigation of the seabed and the water column, and includes: (i) a variety of profilers for surveying shallow and deep environments (airgun, sparkers, pingers and chirp type), (ii) side scan sonars, (iii) single-beam and multibeam echosounders, (iv) seabed scanning interferometric measurement systems (v) a marine magnetometer (vi) a variety of devices for on-site and telemetric oceanographic measurements and for the evaluation of seawater environmental parameters (e.g. CTDs, ADCP, dissolved oxygen concentration), (vii) devices for water and sediment sampling and (vii) devices for visual inspection (underwater cameras and underwater remotely operated vessels – ROVs). It has a fully equipped physical laboratory space for sedimentological, geochemical, geotechnical and micropaleontological analyses. The lab members process the data with specialized software, some of which was developed by the lab staff itself.

The Oceanus-Lab team has carried out numerous oceanographic expeditions, both in the Greek Archipelago and in the Mediterranean Sea (Egypt, Lebanon, Cyprus, Croatia, Italy, Corsica), in collaboration with Universities and Research Centers throughout Europe and the USA.