ARCTIC CORING EXPEDITION

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ARCTIC CORING EXPEDITION AUGUST-SEPTEMBER AUGUST SEPTEMBER 2004 • Part of the Integrated g Ocean Drilling g Program (IODP) • Sponsored by Americans, Japanese, and ECORD a consortium of European and Scandinavian countries, plus Canada

Purpose • Scientific expedition to take a core from the Lomonosov Ridge near the North Pole. • Core to be analyzed for: – Climatic History of the Arctic Ocean over past 50 million years – Duration of permanent ice over Pole – Origin g of Lomonosov Ridge g – Sedimentation rate on Lomonosov Ridge – Etc. First core ever from this region. g

Schedule of Trip • • • • • • • •

Met Tromso, Norway on August 6th, 2004 I went onto Icebreaker Oden Took off with Vidar Viking g at midnight g Met Sovetskiy Soyuz at ice edge 81º N Arrived at coring site on August 11th Cored for 3 ½ weeks, until September 7th North Pole on September 8th Back in Tromso on September 12th

Lomonosov Ridge

Lomonosov Ridge

TROMSO, NORWAY

TROMSO, NORWAY

Oden

Vidar Viking

Sovetskiy Soyuz (Soviet Union)

Maximum Ice Class 75 000 hp 75,000 23,000 tonnes Nuclear

Convoy to Well Site

Oden and Vidar Viking in Convoy

Occasional Spectators

Ice Everywhere! • 8 – 9/10 ice during transit • Transit used leads as much as possible • Actual route about 20% more than direct route • Transit to coring site took 5 days; 2 days less than planned

IceIce Thickness Thickness •

Measured against calibrated rod



Ice just over 1m thick near pack edge



2.5 to 3.5 m at coring site



Ridges to 10m thick



Up to 7 to 8/10 old ice at coring site



Veryy severe ice conditions at site

3m

Drill Site • Took 5 days y to get g to drill site at 88º N and 140º E (two days less than expected). • Site chosen on Lomonosov Ridge based on seismic done in 2001. Seismic showed seabed sediments very well stratified and in distinct layers. • Water depth 1 1,200m; 200m; sediments ~420m thick.

Ice Management for Drill Ship • Vidar Viking Viking, the drill ship ship, needed to stay over a specific location in the moving ice. • IIcebreaker b k Sovetskiy S t ki S Soyuz broke b k up Bi Big iice flfloes (>500 m) into Medium floes (100 to 500 m), 1 to 3 km up drift. • Oden broke the Medium floes to Ice Cake (3 to 20m), 0.2 to 1km updrift.

Vidar Viking Operation • Vidar Viking operated with manual control mainly using propeller and rudder to hold position causing minimal load on boat position, boat. • V V could deviate only 50m off location while hil d drilling. illi y rammed larger g ice floes. • V V occasionally

Vessels Protecting Vidar Viking Sovetskiy Soyuz

Oden

Vidar Viking g

Direction of ice drift

Aerial Photo Drillship Vidar Viking (stationary)

Oden Large unbroken ice floes Sovetskiy Soyuz

Icebreaker Ice Management g Tracks Oden Ice tracking buoy

Vidar Viking

Sovetskiy Soyuz

Vidar Viking on Well Site

Ice Management at Close Quarters

Vidar Viking in Ice • Ice moved continuously • Ice from 2.5 to 3.5m thick plus ridges • Vessel held on one location for 8 days • Ice was 7-8/10 old ice • Drillship operated in floes 300 to 500m diam before they were managed

DP Control on Vidar Viking

Very sophisticated control system. Manually controlled due to nature of ice loads. C t i and Captain d mates t worked k d around d clock. l k

Ice Tracking • GPS Buoys were used to track the ice floes. • Three buoys placed on ice near Vidar Viking. • Buoys transmitted their location every 5 minutes with accuracy of 2.5m. Max range about 5km. • Buoys gave ice drift speed and direction direction. • Vidar Viking had to rotate so bow pointed into oncoming o co g ice. ce • Ice breakers always operated up drift of drillship

INSTALLING ICE TRACKER BUOY ON ICE FLOE

Ice Information • Satellite images – only Canadian Radarsat satellite was useful due to high latitude and cloud cover cover. • Helicopter ice reconnaissance daily. • Sovetskiy S t ki Soyuz S ice i reconnaissance i and d assessment of ice. • Ice forecasts every 12 hours based on forecast winds.

2 n. miles

Radarsat Image August 17

Icebreaker tracks

08:27UTC

Ice Survey with Helicopter

Drills site Ice Floes

GPS Track of Helicopter

Direction ice motion

Helicopter p Ice Survey y with Ice Forecast

Ice Forecast on Radarsat Yellow line indicates where ice is coming from. Numbers are time-month-day Black ovals are large, potentially t ti ll dangerous d ice i floes

Direction Ice Motion

Well Site

Sovetskiy Soyuz in Ice

CAPTAIN MAX SHIRLEY & ARNO KEINONEN (exactly ( l 2 m)) REPLACEMENT BLADES FOR SOVETSKIY SOYUZ

EXAMPLE OF ICE MILLING BY OPEN BLADES ON SOVETSKIY SOYUZ

Sovetskiy Soyuz Nuclear Control Room

Nuclear Reactor on Sovetskiy Soyuz

Gym on Sovetskiy Soyuz

Swimming Pool on Sovetskiy Soyuz

Dining Room on Sovetskiy Soyuz

Sovetskiy Soyuz

Hercules Fly Past after Drop

LOW FLY BY

Quick-Draw Roger about to get a Ph Phone C Callll • Ericksson provided everyone with cell phone. • I could phone directly to anyone on any of the three ships ships, and have private phone conversation. • Very quiet on ship – No PA system.

Ice Forecasting g

Ice Forecasting Empirical formula Vice = 0.017 0 017 x Vwind (and 40° to right) + Vtidal + Vnon-tidal There was no tide and no measurable non-tidal current, so

Vice = 0.017 x Vwind (and 40° to right)

9/ 2/ 04 1 9/ 2/ 2:0 0 04 14 9/ : 2/ 04 00 1 9/ 2/ 6:0 0 04 18 9/ : 2/ 04 00 2 9/ 2/ 0:0 0 04 22 9/ 3/ :00 04 0 9/ 3/ :00 04 2 9/ 3/ :00 04 4 9/ 3/ :00 04 6 9/ 3/ :00 0 9/ 4 8 : 3/ 04 00 1 9/ 3/ 0:0 0 04 12 9/ : 3/ 04 00 1 9/ 3/ 4:0 0 04 16 9/ : 3/ 04 00 1 9/ 3/ 8:0 0 04 20 9/ : 3/ 04 00 22 9/ 4/ :00 04 0 9/ 4/ :00 04 2 9/ 4/ :00 04 4 9/ 4/ :00 04 6 9/ 4/ :00 04 9/ 4/ 8:0 0 04 10 9/ : 4/ 04 00 12 :0 0

Comparison of Forecast and Measured Winds

400 Measured wind Direction

350 8.0

Forecast Wind Direction

Measured wind speed

forecast wind speed

7.0

300 6.0

250 5.0

200 4.0

150 3.0

100 2.0

50 1.0

0 0.0

Date and time 8/26/04 19 9:00

8/26/04 13 3:00

8/26/04 7 7:00

8/26/04 1 1:00

8/25/04 19 9:00

8/25/04 13 3:00

8/25/04 7 7:00

8/25/04 1 1:00

8/24/04 19 9:00

8/24/04 13 3:00

8/24/04 7 7:00

8/24/04 1 1:00

8/23/04 19 9:00

8/23/04 13 3:00

8/23/04 7 7:00

8/23/04 1 1:00

Forecast Ice Drift Direction

8/22/04 19 9:00

0.04

8/22/04 13 3:00

Measured Ice Drift Speed

8/22/04 7 7:00

0.06

8/22/04 1 1:00

Forecast Ice Drift Speed (kt)

8/21/04 19 9:00

0.08

8/21/04 13 3:00

8/21/04 7 7:00

8/21/04 1 1:00

8/20/04 19 9:00

8/20/04 13 3:00

8/20/04 7 7:00

8/20/04 1 1:00

8/19/04 19 9:00

8/19/04 13 3:00

0.02

8/19/04 7 7:00

8/19/04 1 1:00

8/18/04 19 9:00

8/18/04 13 3:00

8/18/04 7 7:00

8/18/04 1 1:00

8/17/04 19 9:00

Drift speed (ktt) 0.30

0.24

0.20

0.18 180

0.16

0.14

0.12 120

0.10

60

Measured Ice Drift Direction

0.00 0

Drift Direction n

0.36

Comparison of Forecast and Measured Ice Drift (Speeds are blue and Directions are pink) Forecast and Measured Ice Drift Speed and Direction 360

0.34

0.32

300

0.28

0.26

240

0.22

Two Helicopters on Oden Helicopters for ice surveys Personnel transportation between ships Placing g and recovery y of ice drift buoys y

Deck of Vidar Viking

Moonpool added Drillrig added Contained all drill supplies Several laboratories for core analysis

DRILL BIT

Corer Forced F d iinto t sediment di tb by h hydraulic d li pressure 4.5 m cores taken each time About 1 hour to recover core on wireline About 10 days for 420 m core

Chief scientist Ted and Project Manager Kate Moran with sample

Preliminary Analysis of a Core

Soils Laboratory on Vidar Viking

DAILY EXERCISE CLASS RAN UP TO BRIDGE

TRIP TO NORTH POLE AND BACK

Preparing Champagne for arrival at Pole

Canadians at North Pole

Some Tourists at North Pole

TOURISTS MAKING HASTY RETREAT to SAUNA

A HOT TODDY AT THE POLE

Group p at North Pole

What is it like at the North Pole?

FERMENTED HERRING PARTY

THE BAR

ONE OF MANY PARTIES IN THE BAR

CAPTAIN’S CAPTAIN S DINNER ON SOVETSKIY SOYUZ

Yamal, Sister Ship to S – S Taking tourists to the North Pole $17,000 to $27,000 per person Makes several trips p p per yyear Roared past us at 12kt

Marine Successes • 100% successful operationally • Vidar Viking drilled on location 8 days continuously. • No mechanical losses due to ice, as operators kept aware of situation and time to close down. • Sovetskiy Soyuz performed better than expected expected, in breaking up the ice sheet. • Oden veryy effective in breaking g up p managed g floes. • V V performed better than expected in maintaining location. • Ice forecasting was good - forecasted changes in direction of ice for ice management, and arrival of unmanageable ice floes.

SOME GEOTECHNICAL FINDINGS 430 M CORE – ABOUT 60 MILLION YEARS OF INFORMATION. INFORMATION • BEDROCK IS SANDSTONE AND 80 MILLION YEARS OLD : SHALLOW WATER CONTINENTAL ORIGIN – LOMONOSOV RIDGE BELIEVED TO HAVE BROKEN OFF SIBERIAN COASTAL SHELF 55 MILLION YEARS AGO. • 55 MILLION YEARS AGO: ARCTIC (& WORLD) WAS SUBTROPICAL FOR ABOUT 200,000 YEARS DUE TO GREEN HOUSE GASES

SOME GEOTECHNICAL FINDINGS • 40 MILLION YEARS AGO: FRESH WATER FERNS (LOW SALINITY, SHALLOW WATER DOMINATED REGION) • ARCTIC OCEAN WAS CLOSED FRESH WATER SEA WHICH OPENED TO ATLANTIC ABOUT 17.5 MILLION YEARS AGO. • PAST 15 MILLION YEARS: PERMANENT ICE OVER POLE

Sea Ice Extent Sept 2007 4.1 million square km

Sea Ice Extent Sept 2007 and 2008

Sea Ice S I Extent Sept 2008

Sea Ice Extent Sept 2008

Theoretical and Observed Arctic Sea Ice Extent