Arctic fog

The Arctic fog came in yesterday morning, so we stuck around Ny Alesund and tried to wait it out. Unfortunately the fog never lifted, but we decided to head down to the glaciers anyways. Phaedra needed to pick up her water pressure gauge and deploy another one in the same spot, and Theo also needed to pick up his lonely sediment trap. Unfortunately, when we took the trap out of the water, we discovered that the cord had become tangled and therefore the traps were tilted sideways and not collecting sediment as desired. While we re-deployed the trap, the twine snapped on the winch and we lost the trap, yet again. 

Today we successfully deployed three traps. When we were done, a heavy coat of fog rolled down the glacier and surrounded us. We had to use the shoreline (and the GPS) to navigate back to Ny Alesund, and nearly ran aground several times attempting to keep the shore in sight. 

pirate ship in the fog

the fog rolling in over the glacier 

driving home in the fog 

slow going

The past three days have been very busy. On Monday, my boat deployed two sediment traps and lost both of them. Each sediment trap is set to the water column depth at that location, which is determined by taking an ekmen or core sample. Unfortunately, even after this process, we managed to make the first trap too short and when we tossed it over, it just sunk. Bye bye trap. On the second try, we decided to be smart about the ordeal, and attached the last buoy to the boat to make sure it wouldn't sink. The rope went slack, so we untied it from the boat assuming it had hit bottom, and it then proceeded to disappear, probably eaten by nessy below. On Tuesday, we deployed another trap, which we didn't lose, but it still didn't hit bottom. In fact, when we first deployed it, it looked like it had hit bottom - but two minutes later the buoy was running away towards the ice and disappearing below - luckily we were still attached. From these observations, it is likely that we were attempting to deploy the traps on a morainal bank, and the rock that is holding down the trap is rolling down the steep backside.

Today Ross, Mike, and I stuck around Ny Alesund for the morning to work on setting up the echosounder on one of the boats. The boat that we are using has a rubber hull and as a result we had to find a new way to clamp our required supports onto the boat without bending the hull. Luckily, Mike put his carpentry skills to work and developed a system so that we can clamp down the supports onto the hull from the inside and outside. Hopefully tomorrow we will start running transects with the instrument in front of Kongsvegen/Kronebreen, if it is not raining.

after-breakfast group meeting

calm waters at Kongsvegen

echosounder set up (photo by Mike Rhinard)

prepping for fieldwork

After a bit of waiting, we are finally starting to get into the swing of things and collect some samples. On Saturday, we headed out in the boats and used the box cores, CTD/OBS, alpha bottles, and ball check core. We have decided to focus on two areas in front of Kronebreen for sediment collection: one is the upwelling of a subglacial stream and the other is the delta. Perhaps obviously, these two areas provide the bulk of sediment that ends up on the ocean floor. The boat that I was in headed to the upwelling and spent the day deploying the box core. Out of seven tries, we only managed to come away with one decent sample that actually preserved the water-sediment interface. 

deploying a box core (photo by Julie Brigham-Grette)

Today we prepared the sediment traps, which we will deploy tomorrow. It took us close to eight hours to construct six traps. 

. 

drilling the PVC pipe for the sediment traps (photo by Julie Brigham-Grette)

The weekends in Ny Alesund are not what I would have expected. On Friday night, the town empties as people disperse out to cabins. They often head to a cabin called "Gorilla," which received its name because people act like gorillas while they are there.  The meal plan also changes on the weekend to brunch at 10:00 and dinner at 18:30, rather than the weekly schedule of breakfast, lunch, and dinner at 7:30, 12:30, and 16:30, respectively. The meals this weekend were delicious, because the ship which will supply our food for the next month just arrived. As a result, we have fresh vegetables and fresh fruit, but soon we will return to the canned goods of the previous week. 

Ok, well enough for now: I need to get to bed!

sunbathing in Ny Alesund

After a long, hard day of work, what could be better than sun bathing in the Arctic Ocean? That is sunbathing with a survival suit and beer, of course. Once we finished our work on the boats, we jumped into the ocean with a beer in hand and floated around for a bit. Floating in a survival suit is kind of like lying on a water bed, except even more relaxing. The only difficulty is overcoming the buoyancy of your body when you try to take a sip of beer.

swimming in the Arctic Ocean

This afternoon we played around with the scientific instruments a bit and attached the winches to the boats. At the moment, my project looks like it will be focused on the bathymetry in front of Kongsvegen and Kronebreen, which I will compare to data from 2005. All three glaciers have retreated significantly since 2005, so I will also be looking at ocean floor that has yet to be mapped and how that is related to the retreat history. The research will likely be driven by the following research questions:

1) How has the bathymetry in front of the glaciers changed since 2005?

2) How are changes in bathymetry related to the retreat history?

3) How much total sediment has been deposited since 2005?

Unfortunately, we have yet to find the best way to attach the depth profiler to the boat. When the instrument is lowered on metal rods far below sea level, the metal rods bend and the instrument drifts below the boat when the boat is in motion. When the instrument is closer to sea level, bubbles form around the instrument, which can also interfere with the readings. So it is a matter of finding that "perfect" level, and the best way to buttress the instrument against the boat so that is does not drift under the boat. We are in the process of cutting the metal rods that connect the instrument to the boat, so that will likely help.

more reconnaissance

Today we explored another area where Kronebreen enters the ocean that has opened up since 2005. We talked a bit about the glacial features that a glacier leaves behind when it retreats from an area, and the significance of those features - we also looked at other features like the ones below:

pedestal of ice below a rock, with a rifle for scale

Which way is the rock dipping? Clearly an ice axe and rifle are needed to figure this one out, rather than a brunton.

the scale of the landscape is unbelievable, so here are some people for scale

On the way home, we found a large ice berg that had calved off from the base of the glacier. Ice bergs make it relatively "easy" to get a sample of the basal till and an idea of the amount of sediment that the glacier is carrying. 

large ice berg, with boat on the right for scale

iceberg stratigraphy and basal sediment

striated basal ice

Someone, who will remain nameless, told me that I have not provided enough photos of us in our survival suits. More of those are bound to come once we start studying the sedimentation processes, but here are a few shots for the moment:

survival suits and matching dry bags 

driving lessons (avoid the bergs)

exploring the delta and ice

We landed on the outwash in front of Kongsvegen to do a bit more exploration by foot. Kongsvegen (a surge type glacier which is presently in its quiescent phase) has retreated significantly in the last four years, opening up new "ground" that has yet to be studied. The area is still covered by ice below the melting-out sediment layer (ice cored moraines, etc.) from the retreat. The melting ice makes the ground rather squishy--that mixed with the muddy channels means a perfect location to test the limits of a pair of Muck Boots. 

We also walked up a bit of elf ice to get onto the toe of Kongsvegen glacier and see some spectacular supraglacial streams that flow off the glacier as a waterfall.  

Kongsvegen terminus

supraglacial stream

sediment pinnacle

WOW

After lunch, we finally jumped into the boats and headed down towards Kronebreen glacier. To be safe out on the water, we need a rifle in case we encounter a torpedo-walrus or polar bear, and also our survival suits. My survival suit is a bit large, and tends to fall down around my legs so that I can only waddle around. The survival suit also keeps you incredibly warm, which is a benefit when the wind is blowing.

The fjord and glacier termini are absolutely gorgeous. The face of Kronebreen stretches about 70 m above the water and about another 100-150 m below depending on the bathymetry. It is nearly impossible to tell how close you are to the glacier, unless you drive up directly to the face--that, however, would be a poor decision because of calving. You can think that you are only 500 m away, and the actual distance might be closer to 2 km.

We all got incredibly excited about seeing our field site and took more photos than probably necessary. I shot 83 photos in 3 hours, which is a record for me (especially considering I rarely take photos). We also saw several calving events, which are hard to get on camera. Hopefully my response time to calving events will increase in the future, and I will be able to document them. Here are some photos from our adventure:

seal (i.e., polar bear meat)

trimline, likely from the Little Ice Age

Parts of Kronebreen are retreating back onto land (see the bedrock in the middle of the photo). Also, there is a calving event in this photo if you can pick it out...

Hannah models our survival suits and points out a subglacial stream. Subglacial streams are relatively easy to detect on the surface here, because they (1) create a sediment plume as they bring up sediment from beneath the glacier and (2) birds gather around them, because as the freshwater flows to the surface, it brings up krill.

bergy bits in Kongsfjorden

arch above subglacial stream at Kronebreen

blue ice in iceberg with Kronebreen in background

view of Kronebreen and Kongsvegen from Kings Bay Marine Lab

mini calving event, Kronebreen

tangled cable

I hope I never have to wind a cable onto a winch again. First, the cable is tangled, and it takes 3 hours to untangle the 300 m cable. Then, we extend the cable along one of the two main roads in Ny Alesund - apparently the road is about 300 m (we inadvertently measured it with our cable) and other residents of Ny Alesund find our work rather amusing. Finally, we wind the cable onto the winch. 

Today we worked on the winches and programmed our field equipment. Unfortunately one of the CTDs is not recognizing the computer, so we may not be able to use it. Alas, the inevitable struggles of field work! It looks like we will finally get out in the boats tomorrow, which would be wonderful.

As a side note, every once in a while I get nearly as excited about rocks as I am about ice: look at this awesome fold (outlined in snow!) below:

bad weather and 24 hour sunlight

The bar is perhaps the darkest room in all of Ny Alesund--it takes a good twenty minutes to adjust to the lack of light after entering. Every time the door opens there is a rush of sunlight, which further confuses the eyes. Its seems almost comical to leave the bar at 1:30 am and for it still to be completely light out, but we are at 79 degrees north and everything here seems a bit comical. It feels like one long day, broken up by many small naps.

Yesterday we spent the majority of the day in the Kings Bay Marine Laboratory working with the equipment and marking off cable every 1m to lower our instruments into the fjord. The wind has been bad since we arrived, which makes it unsafe for us to travel to the glacier termini by boat. The forecast suggests that this weather will likely remain until Wednesday, so we will either have to wait until then or start working by night - not a problem in 24 hour sunlight!

clouds over the mountain near the airport

upwelling and aircrafts

Today bolstered the saying of "the difference between a boy and a man is the size of his toys." After a leisurely morning and Saturday brunch, we headed over to the airport to see the takeoff of NASA's SIERRA (Sensor Integrated Environmental Remote Research Aircraft). As I mentioned earlier, NASA deploys the UAV to look at sea ice thickness and roughness. We learned a bit about how the aircraft operates and the instruments, which include down-pointing and side-pointing lasers and a humidity detector. It took a couple of hours for the airplane to take off, so we hung out on the runway getting cold from a strong wind. Some of us (Julie and Laura P) tried to stay warm by dancing the macarena.

SIERRA UAV

The SIERRA is remotely-controlled during takeoff, but once in the air the flight pattern is automatic and follows a path set in Google Earth.

SIERRA in the far distance during takeoff

After the takeoff, we hiked over to a glacier where Mike Hambrey is working at the moment. To get there, we hiked up several ice-cored moraines and several streams. During this adventure, I discovered that Muck Boots are probably the best invention that man ever made.

Theo is amazed by his muck boots...they even keep you warm in glacial stream water!

We saw some pretty interesting glacial features around the glacier, including stone circles and upwelling subglacial water. Stone circles form as a result of the freeze-thaw cycle in the active layer above permafrost. As the active layer cools and warms, convection occurs which sorts the sediments based on size.

Julie provides a scale for the stone circles (also known as patterned ground).

englacial water upwelling

supraglacial stream

looking up glacier

Tonight is the one night of the week that the bar is open. Each week a different scientists serves as the bartender--this week it is someone from NASA. Now I'm off to dinner and then to the bar!

unpacking

Unfortunately I do not have any photos from today, because the weather was bad and we spent part of the day unpacking and the rest in lecture. Even the cruise ship, which was supposed to drop 2800 tourists into Ny Alesund, did not dock or shuttle in passengers.

This morning we unpacked most of our gear, which included 21 boxes. Several boxes are still on their way and will arrive next week. Equipment includes a CTD (for measuring conductivity, temperature, and depth), OBS (for measuring sediment concentration in the water), sediment traps, gravity cores, alpha bottles, a pressure gage, ekmen grab sampler, and a machine that uses echosounding to create bathymetric profiles in front of the glacier.

In the afternoon, we talked about the equipment and the measurements that we will want to take while we are here. We also started to discuss possible thesis project ideas, but more will come on that later once we get out to the ice margin and better understand the scientific questions that we want to answer. In addition, we got a short lecture from Yngve Kristoffersen, who operates a hovercraft

north of Svalbard that looks primarily at sea ice thickness. As he

states, "it's not a toy, it's a research vessel."

The French (and German) base held a French National Day celebration this evening, which was a ton of fun. I met several people from NASA as well as Italy, Spain, and France. NASA invited us out to watch them launch their remote controlled aircraft tomorrow, which also investigates sea ice thickness and roughness.

home in Ny Alesund!

Today was a day of firsts. I saw my first reindeer, and I ate my first reindeer at Kings Bay dining area. Reindeer is actually quite good - it tastes a bit like beef, especially when it is grounded. (Just in case you were thinking it, I did not actually shoot the reindeer with my rifle and eat it.)

This morning we woke up and headed back to the airport to fly over to Ny Alesund. The group was split up into different flights: one in the morning and the other in the afternoon. I was on the afternoon flight, so we dropped our luggage off at the airport and headed back into Longyearbyen for coffee and internet at UNIS.

Luckily the weather cleared a bit before our flight. The airplane was a Dornier 228-200 (a 12-seat airplane) so we all had a window seat. The views were spectacular:

glaciers off Isfjord (where Longyearbyen is located)

meeting of Kongsvegen and Kronebreen glaciers near Ny Alesund

Ny Alesund from the airplane

We finally arrived in Ny Alesund, our home for the next four weeks. While we are here, we are working out of a Marine Laboratory, where the US is one of several international partners of the lab. The US does not have its own base in Ny Alesund.

Once we picked up our baggage from the trailer, we took a tour of the town and found our rooms. Four words sum up Ny Alesund: out of this world. Despite its northern position at 79 degrees N, the "residents" (scientists included) of Ny Alesund have access to a climbing wall, indoor basketball/hockey court, a hot tub, sauna, exercise room (with weights and an erg), and a tanning bed. While eating meals, we look out on the fjord and the glaciers in the background. The only store in town is open to "residents" twice during the week; the rest of the week it is dedicated to tour ships--some ships come into Ny Alesund with 2800 passengers on board. Today was one of the days when the store is open, so we went over to the store after dinner to pick up some wine and beer.

Another unique characteristic of Norwegian culture is that you take your shoes off whenever you go into a public facility. I am still adjusting to taking my shoes off. At the museum at UNIS, they provide you with crocs to wear around the museum (this photo is primarily for my advisor at Dartmouth College, Bob Hawley):

Tomorrow we plan to unpack all our equipment and gear, and if we are lucky, we will get out on the boats to explore the area and start thinking about possible projects. Needless to say, I am ecstatic to have finally arrived at our final destination. I didn't even have to fake a smile for my picture!

shooting range and survival suits

Yesterday we learned how to "survive" in the Arctic. First, we headed to UNIS for a safety lesson. Apparently walruses may be "clumsy on land but like torpedo in the water," and we need to avoid them so we do not puncture our boat. Aftewards, we headed to the shooting range, which is located in a cirque above Longyearbyen. On the way to the shooting range, we saw the Seed Vault:

dfasd
sa

Needless to say, the seed vault was not exactly what I was expecting: where is the security to protect our future?

At the gun range, a guy from UNIS instructed us in the proper use of rifles and flare guns, and we learned how to respond if we are approached by a polar bear.

fdsaf

We first learned to half-load the rifle (0.30-06 caliber) and then shot a total of 20 rounds: 8 lying down, 8 in a kneeling position, and 4 standing up. I didn't hit any bullseyes, but at least I got 14 out of the 20 into the big circle.

On my first 8 shots while lying down (the guns we use hold 4 bullets per cartridge), I got 5/8. If you zoom into the above image, you might be able to see all 5 holes in the target.

Hector half-loads his rifle.

Hannah shoots standing up.

Svalbard REU (minus Julie) prepared to survive in the Arctic (photo courtesy of Julie Brigham-Grette)

Once we were "skilled" in the use of a rifle, we drove back down to UNIS for survival suit training. We all had to jump off a dock into the water in our survival suits, and crawl back up onto the dock. I used the "beached whale" technique of getting out, by pulling up with my arms, throwing one leg on the dock, and rolling over to get the rest of my body up. We also had another test, which required us to rope together and swim to the shore. Let's just say swimming in a survival suit is kind of like swimming in honey...

After safety training, we had a bit of time before dinner to relax and explore the town. We dined at the KROA, which is one of the few restaurants in Longyearbyen. I tried my first bite of cured minke whale, which I have to admit was not bad. Granted, it was also heavily spiced. After dinner, we went to the Svalbar for drinks.

we're in Longyearbyen!

I apologize that it has taken me several days to post; our only internet here in Longyearbyen is located in a room dedicated to the IPY at UNIS. I am in fact still alive and yet to be eaten by a polar bear, despite the many attempts of stuffed polar bears around Longyearbyen.

Here is a summary of the past couple of days:

We arrived in Longyearbyen at 23:30 on Monday to perfect weather. While we waited for our taxi, I stripped down to my t-shirt and put on my sunglasses. The air smelled of ocean, and it felt like I was back at home in Seattle on a crisp, clear day in the late fall. Of course, the primary difference was that it was midnight in Svalbard, and I needed my sunglasses (not just to look
cool).

Flight into Longyearbyen

Overall, our journey to Svalbard went well. During our eight-hour layover in Oslo, we decided to catch the bus into downtown and then take the ferry to go see the FRAM. In the late 19th century, Nansen decided to freeze the FRAM into the Arctic sea ice near Russia to track the ship as it drifted over time. The ship was later found near eastern Greenland, thus confirming that the Arctic Ocean was an ocean rather than a compilation of islands. We also saw the GJOA, which was the first ship (captained by Shackleton) to successfully navigate the Northwest Passage in 1906, outside of the building that encapsulates the FRAM.

Tuesday was primarily a day of recovery. After a leisurely morning, we headed into town to grab breakfast and go to the bank. We spent the afternoon at UNIS reviewing a bit of glaciology and paleoclimatology, and talking about glacimarine systems.