A multi-institutional research expedition under the aegis of GEOTRACES (http://www.geotraces.org/) and fully funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences was flagged off by Dr. Shailesh Nayak, Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Earth Sciences on 02 March 2013. GEOTRACES is an international programme which aims to improve the understanding of biogeochemical cycles and large-scale distribution of trace elements and their isotopes in the marine environment. Scientists from approximately 30 nations have been involved in the programme, which is designed to study all major ocean basins over the next decade.
The GEOTRACES-India is led by the Physical Research Laboratory (Ahmedabad) and National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research (Goa), with participation from various national institutions and universities. To study trace elements in sea water, it is necessary to have laboratory facilities that are contaminant free and metal-free. NCAOR is setting up a completely metal-free and state-of-the-art clean laboratory that can carry out contaminant-free analysis of trace metals and isotopes in seawater.