ONLINE LOG ALLOWS ODU COMMUNITY TO FOLLOW ARCTIC ADVENTURES OF DENNIS DARBY

Dr. Darby sampling a patch of sediment on the ice at about 88 deg N, his closest position to the North Pole on LOMROG.

This summer’s Arctic Ocean experiences of Dennis Darby, a paleoclimatologist on the Old Dominion University faculty, can be followed online thanks to a log kept by the researcher.

Darby is participating in an International Polar Year (IPY) expedition called LOMROG because it involves bottom mapping, coring and “dirty ice” collection along the submerged Lomonosov Ridge off Greenland. The 1,200-mile ridge runs from the central Siberian continental shelf, through the North Pole, and to just north of Greenland.

Darby is aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden, which began the five-week research cruise from Tromso, Norway, on Aug. 12. The expedition is sponsored by Sweden, as well as Denmark.

Also participating in the expedition is the ultra-modern, nuclear-powered Russian icebreaker 50 Let Pobedy (50 Years of Freedom), which will be making its maiden voyage to the Arctic and North Pole.

August 12, 2007
    Oden departed Tromso, Norway to begin the LOMonosov Ridge Off Greenland (LOMROG) Expedition. The main purpose of this expedition is to map the sea floor in the region north of Greenland for the claims that Denmark and Canada will make as part of the Law of the Sea. Dr. Darby was invited to participate because of his Arctic experience and expertise in sampling sea ice and sediment coring in the Arctic. He joins the Martin Jakobsson (Stockholm University) group onboard Oden and they will map the sea floor with swath bathymetry in greater detail than ever before. This is a very difficult area to reach due to the potential for thick ice and large pressure ridges. Thus the Danish government has paid for the Russian nuclear icebreaker, 50 Years of Victory, to escort Oden through this treacherous polar ice area. This sea floor mapping will hopefully show areas of grounded ice from past ice ages and other features leading to a better understanding of geologic processes in the Arctic. Sediment cores will be collected from several sites to help better understand past climate changes in this area and to show ice drift patterns off Greenland in the past. Darby will also be in charge of collecting dirty sea ice samples from the drifting pack ice. These samples can be analyzed for small grains that, like a fingerprint, can be traced back to their source and thus determine where the ice originated. He will use the helicopter on Oden to locate sea ice with sediment and then land to collect samples.

Currently Oden is at 73° N and 21.5°E heading NW toward Svalbard. Tomorrow morning the ship's helicopter and crew will fly from Longyearben, Svalbard to the ship. The temperature is a balmy 10° C (~50° F) and we have winds out of the south at 19 knts. Sea swell is about 1-1.5 m. So conditions are delightful for the Norwegian Sea where storms are common this time of year. Good thing because, like all icebreakers, Oden rolls quite a bit in all seas.

August 13, 2007
    Oden is transiting the Norwegian Sea and passed Bear Island after refueling at Hammerfest, Norway. Weather is mild and seas are less than 1 meter. Everyone is setting up equipment and preparing for the first stations.

August 14, 2007
    We passed Svalbard and picked-up our helicopter and crew along with 11 pieces of luggage that did not arrive in Tromso with some of our Swedish colleagues. We will be testing equipment for the next day. The winds shifted around and strengthened slightly and we are running 1.5 meter seas dead on as we pass south of Svalbard. Temperatures are finally dropping and are currently below 5 degrees C.

August 15, 2007
    Oden stopped about 30 nautical miles southwest of Svalbard for about 6 hours to test winches and equipment. Both the coring and seismic equipment deployed properly as well as the water sampling device. After this we headed north to the rendezvous with the Russian nuclear icebreaker scheduled for Thursday. We encountered small floes of sea ice. The temperature is currently 3 degrees C or just below 40 deg F and dropping. Seas are calm. Everyone appears prepared for our first science station in several days.

August 16, 2007
    Oden entered the pack ice early this afternoon and immediately spotted a polar bear. Ice conditions are 8/10 with abundant cracks and leads with ice thicknesses around 1 meter or less. Oden was able to average over 5 knts most of the time. Every Thursday Oden serves bean soup and pancakes for dinner, a tradition that everyone enjoys. Martin Jakobsson (chief scientist for coring and swath bathymetry) and Christian Marcussen (chief scientist for seismic surveys) gave a joint seminar on the United Nations Law of the Sea (Article 76) dealing with rules for coastal nations to lay claim to seafloor beyond their 200 mile current zone. One of the prime motivations for this expedition is to map the seafloor for Denmark and Canada in the area of the Lomonosov RIdge north of Greenland and Ellesmere Island.

August 17, 2007
    Today, Oden finally linked up with the Russian nuclear icebreaker, "50 Years of Victory", or rather she linked up with us. After breaking ice at an average 5 knts for a full day we stopped when the Science leader Anders Karqvist and the Captain of Oden, Tomas Arnell flew over to the Russian ship about 8 miles away. A short time later the Russians appeared, backing up to Oden's port side at about 5 knts. Thus, she was able to break ice backwards as fast as we could forward. At 518 ft she is nearly 1.4X as large as Oden (380 ft) and more than twice as powerful at 70,000 hp. After Oden repaired a minor leak in the port shaft seal, 50 Years lead the way at 10 knts to station 1.

August 18, 2007
    The day began with snow and fog and ended overcast to partly sunny with fairly clear visibility. Oden contiues to follow 50 Years of Victory at incredible speeds (up to 15 knts). We stopped for 4 hours for a CTD cast to collect water samples in the Amundsen Basin (~4,000 meters deep) and while stopped the ice physics group was lifted onto the ice next to Oden by helicopter. While they were measuring ice thickness and other properties, three of us including Dr. Darby were flown about 20 miles to the sailing vessel Tara. This French/International expedition froze a two-masted sailing vessel into the ice near Nova Zelma, Russian Siberia about a year ago and they have been drifting across the Arctic since. There are 8 people onboard Tara but not all of them have been there since the start. They do receive occasional flights for resupply. While drifting, they monitor weather conditions, ice conditions, etc. We took them a new instrument to measure ice thickness and some fresh fruit. Enroute back to Oden, we landed twice to sample sea ice with sediment. Dr. Darby will analyze the Fe oxide grains in this mud that became entrapped in the ice when the ice formed in very shallow water (<30 meters). The Fe grains have unique chemical compositions that allows Darby to match each grain to a source area from the shallow coastal areas around the Arctic. This provides the origin of the sea ice as well as insights into this important transport process in the Arctic.

August 19, 2007
    Typical late summer Arctic weather, mostly foggy, moderate winds 20-30 mph, temperature just below freezing, wind chill of about -20 degrees F. We have been towing deep seismic profiling equipment, a 400 meter long string of hydrophones at 20 m depth and firing air guns every 50 meters distance since about midnight. We are averaging about 3 knts but because the ships don't have enough forward momentum at this speed in 1-2m ice, we get stopped several times. Because of the towed hydrophones, we can't back up. So the Russian icebreaker swings around and breaks a path close to us so that we can move. But even with the Russian icebreaker leading the way, many large chunks of ice, some the size of an 18 wheeler slide into our path and Oden becomes a tug boat pushing thousands of tons of ice. We will be doing this for at least another day. Since early this afternoon, we have been in a hugh swath of patchy sediment laden ice. Around 2:30 the helicopter was dispatched with Darby and Katarina Gardfeldt from Goteborg University to collect samples of the dirty ice.

August 20, 2007
    LOMROG suffered a minor setback today. At 2 am Oden had a malfunction in one of her 4 engines and was stopped by heavy ice, which has plagued us since we began towing seismic because we have to go slowly and large chunks of ice build up in the Russian icebreakers wake. Oden doesn't always have the speed nor momentoum to push these out of the way so the Russians have to swing around and cut in front of us to clear the way. We have begun to run into more multi-year ice which is usually thicker and harder than ice that formed in the last year. Multi-year ice over 2 meters is common. We are still running on 3 engines at 10 pm as they work on the fourth. While the temperature hovered just below freezing and winds remained about 5-6 m/s, flying conditions were marginal but the fog lifted enough for several flights to 50 Years of Victory, the Russian icebreaker and one about 2 miles away to a very large patch of dirty ice. We have been passing nearly continuous patches of dirty ice some over 0.5 km wide since the 19th at 13:00 hr. Geir Akse, one of the helicopter pilots spotted one of these floes about a mile away during ice reconnaissance this morning and one student, Daniella Hanslik from Stockholm University and Dr. Darby flew out to it along with Hans Ramlov who drilled an ice core while Darby and Daniella sampled 6 locations within this floe. Mud nearly a cm thick blanketed one small area and there were clam shells and sea weed on the ice indicating that the sediment was incorporated into the ice in shallow water by ice frozen to the bottom. Darby will analyze the Fe oxide grains by electron microprobe, an instrument that can determine the chemical makeup of each grain and use this like a fingerprint to match it back to its source.

August 21, 2007
    Oden reached its farthest north position of nearly 88 degrees N today. Due to heavy ice conditions between this position and the planned route to the Lomonosov Ridge, the decision was made to move south along this area of thick, compressed ice before turning west toward the Ridge. This saves time and money. Oden continues to pass through patches of significant dirty ice and another sample was obtained today, the fifth dirty ice collection area thus far. Including replicates from the same areas, 10 separate ice samples have been obtained. More ice cores were also obtained today. The seismic gear has been stowed and we are now making about 6 knts but occasionally more than 10 knts behind 50 Years of Victory. The weather is nearly unchanged with foggy conditions and winds of 6-8 m/s, wind chill of -12 degrees C and air temperature just below freezing. It snowed rather heavily this morning but much lighter since. Many of the crew are taking advantage of aerobics or yoga sessions as well as the two saunas after work hours.

August 22, 2007
    Oden was in transit to the southwest before turning west to reach the first coring station on the Lomonosov Ridge. This is the topographic high that is of such interest in Canada and Denmark's economic zone claim for the Law of the Sea. There were no data collected save for an ice survey. Although dirty ice was encountered in small patches, the snow made it difficult to see from the helicopter. More snow fell today and the weather turned slightly colder with lots of fog. The ice is drifting south-southwest at about 0.2-0.4 knts and there are noticeably more and larger pressure ridges south of 87 degrees N. Dr. Trine Dahl-Jensen from GUES, Copenhagen gave an interesting seminar on the LORITA project, a seismic exploration of the Lomonosov Ridge near Greenland a couple of years ago. She and her Canadian colleagues spent a month working out of the remote Canadian camp at the northern tip of Ellesmere Island called Alert. They used helicopters and a twin otter airplane to set explosives at 100 meters depth through ice holes and seismic phones on the ice to record the seismic vibrations from these charges when they returned from the seafloor. This was also sponsored by these two countries as part of their efforts to establish claims that they hope will extend well beyond the current economic zones. Whether they will pay dividends in resource discoveries in the future is still a good question.

August 23, 2007
    The LOMROG expedition coring finally began in earnest. We reached our first revised coring station on the flank of the Lomonosv Ridge near 86° 54'N and 48° 12'W and took a gravity core of 1.3 m in about 1800 meters water depth. Before that a small dirty ice sample was taken from just off the starboard aft of Oden using a crane cage for lifting crew members overboard. Martin Jakobsson, the chief scientist in charge of mapping and coring volunteered to take the sample amongst rubble created by Oden. Two CTD stations were completed where an array of water bottles are lowered to the bottom and the water column is sampled at different depths on the way up. The physical parameters of the water column are also recorded. Some open leads in the ice were found on the ridge crest and Oden left 50 Years of Vistory to follow these leads south as part of a survey for the next coring site. We obtain better quality data without the bubbles and ice cunks generated by the Russian nuclear icebreaker. Periods of sun intermixed with fog were welcomed and several helicopter surveys and ice reconnaissance were accomplished today. As per every Thursday on Oden, the evening meal was ham and bean soup with pancakes and a small glass of warmed Swedish punch.

August 24, 2007
    Today, early morning snow turned to freezing rain and 8m/s (17 mph) wind. Oden core team had a good day taking one gravity core of about 1.2m in diamicton (glacial till with very stiff clay and abundant coarse material) and a piston core of about 5 m length in strata near the ridge crest but in deeper water than the earlier gravity core so that no obvious diamicton was encountered. This is because the glacial ice grounded in the shallower depth depositing glacial deposits. As a little touch of excitement, there was a fire alarm around 9 tonight but it turned out to be false. Apparently smoke exhaust smoke was sucked into an open hatch. Everyone had to assemble on the helicopter pad, even those of us who were in the sauna. Made for some interesting attire on the flight deck.

August 25, 2007
    Oden is in transit between stations except for a quick 1 hr stop around 7pm for a CTD station to measure the physical properties of the water column and collect water samples for analyses. LOMROG may have suffered a setback today when the Russians informed us that they could not extend our option for another 10 days of escort. We will get a definitive answer on Monday when we can discuss the matter with the CEO of the shipping company that runs the nuclear icebreaker. Without 50 Years of Victory we will probably not be able to operate in the target area off Greenland and have to move to better ice conditions to the east. The ice conditions remain difficult with extensive and large pressure ridges although the ice thickness is 1-2.5 meters and if there were leads and open fractures in the ice, Oden could manage nicely without 50 Years of Victory.

August 26, 2007
    The weather remains rather warm for the Arctic this late in August with temperatures just below freezing. The melt ponds are beginning to freeze over despite this and new snow has accumulated at least 0.25 meters just in the last several days. The visibility changed rapidly from overcast and foggy to clear and sunny. There were several flights today to do ice reconnaisance and landings on the ice to make physical measurements. Due to the snow cover, no dirty ice has been spotted for 48 hours. The first core from the crest of the Lomonosov Ridge was split open and photographed. Several people stopped by the core lab to see the core and the exposed layers. The gravity core was 1.175 m long. More coring will be attempted tomorrow morning and there are two other cores that have to be cut open as well. The seismic section planned across the valley in the Lomonosov Ridge where it meets the Greenland shelf began around 8pm and at 10pm, about 200 meters of streamer (hydrophones) were lost. The work continues after they were replaced, but it is very doubtful that we will be able to complete the transect to the Greenland shelf before the Russian icebreaker has to turn around and head to its home port tomorrow. The seminar tonight was on the Arctic Ocean circulation by Göran Björk, Göteborg University, Sweden.

August 27, 2007
    Early this morning the Danish seismic program suffered another loss after a night of relative success. In acquiring 15 km of seismic profiles, the streamer was caught on the ice and broke. For nearly an hour the helicopter tried to pull it free with no success despite some nifty maneuvering by the Russian icebreaker in an attempt to loosen the ice around where it was caught. After giving up the effort and abandoning nearly $100K worth of streamer, the Russians drove right over the segment on the ice, snagging it with a hook and after nearly an hour of delicate maneuvers were able to retrieve most of it. Although it is back onboard Oden, it will need lots of repair. After this entertainment, we attempted to core but the coring winch sprung a hydraulic leak and needed repair. Now we are steaming east out of the target study area because the Russian ship suffered some minor damage to one of its propellers and rather than risk further damage working in such difficult ice they decided to return to Murmansk for repairs before they jeopardize their warranty. They will stay with us until we reach the Morris Jessup Rise where we had intended to do about a weeks worth of work enroute back to Svalbard. If the ice conditions there permit, 50 Years of Victory will leave us and we will work in this area for about 2.5 weeks doing more extensive surveying than originally planned. We have about 3 days of transit to this area depending on ice conditions. We learned that ice conditions in the western half of the Arctic Ocean are lighter than normal. The USCGC Healy for instance is operating in open water north of Alaska. Unfortunately, we have very tight ice conditions here due to winds and ice drift towards Greenland that is making progress slow, even for our Russian escort.

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