A secondary objective of the cruise embraced bathymctric mapping, with a multibeam echosounder, of parts of the Mediterranean Ridge, of the mud volcano area in the central Black Sea, and of the Russian economic zone in the eastern Black Sea. Dredging and coring on the Anaximander Mountains have conclusively proven that this part of the Mediterranean seafioor is a prolongation of the Bey Daglari and Antalya Nappes Complex of mainland Turkey, The area is very active tectonically. Several mud volcanoes, which were inferred from remote sea floor observations, were confirmed by sampling; and active gas venting at these mud volcanoes was demonstrated by the first samples of gas hydrates ever taken from the Mediterranean floor and chemosynthetic benthic communities with Lamellibrachia (vestimentifera worms) and a new species of Lucinid. Numerous acoustic anomalies in subbottom profiler data from different parts of the area testify to the presence of gas. Shallow gas causes large-scale mass movement of sediment in a wide valley between the mountains.

In the Sorokin Trough (Crimean continental margin), many mud volcanoes were also discovered and cored. These mud volcanoes are situated on the tops of clay diapiric folds. The variable trends of the folds are controlled by uplifts in the underlying deposits. The folds resulted from a lateral, roughly south-north compression. A rich collection of gas hydrates was gathered from the mud volcanoes; and some bacterial mats were observed for the first time on authigenie carbonate crusts from mud breccia.

The shallow structure of the sedimentary cover in the area of the Pallas Uplift demonstrates several stacked fans belonging to the Pleistocene Don and Kuban Rivers. No evidence of shallow gas occurs in this area.