15 September - 21 September 2008 (Reykjavik – Bremerhaven)

Dense fog remained around the ship during the entire week, which made flight operations difficult. Low-pressure systems followed our track, and caused constant bad weather conditions. However, the mood on the vessel suddenly became better. What had happened?

Since September 7th, the seismic measurements had been conducted. They were only interrupted three times for three hours each to repair the airguns. The geophysists became more and more satisfied because of excellent data quality and surprising results along the lines.  During the continuous profiling, the rest of the scientist crew could not conduct any sampling since the vessel had to stop for station work. When the seismic investigations were interrupted as planned on Wednesday, it was clear that the rest of the scientific programme would be less “monotonous”.  Station work and seismic/bathymetric profiling will constantly change in the next two weeks.

In the previous week, the main focus of our research programme was concentrated along the continental margin of the East Siberian Sea at water depths ranging from 50 to 2000 m. The next target area is located at 80-81°N. Here, we will investigate the Mendeleev Ridge, a large submarine volcanic complex, as well as the surrounding deep sea basins. The transect will start at 80°45’N 155°W and terminates after approx. 1000 nm in the Laptev Sea.

The light ice conditions allowed a fast transit of RV Polarstern into the new research area. On September 18th, around midnight, the station work (Biology, oceanography, geology) started in the deep eastern Canada Basin. After having finished four successful geological stations, we docked at a large ice floe. Here, the oceanographer wanted to deploy an automatic station, which should measure the salinity and temperature in the water down to a water depth of 1000 m, and transmit the data via satellite directly to the home labs. During the time of its deployment, the buoy array will drift with the ice floe and sample the entire Arctic Ocean.  However, the search for a suitable floe remained difficult since their thickness varied around 1 m. An ice thickness of 1.5-2.0 m was needed. After several drill holes, the locations for the deployment of the buoys were fixed. However, dense fog prevented any helicopter flight to transport the scientific equipment onto the floe again.

The rest of the scientists took the opportunity to have a walk on the ice floe. Other people played soccer. The final result of the game was not known, since no independent referee counted the goals. In any case, it was a rare opportunity to play soccer 3300 m above the seafloor on a 1-m thick ice floe.

Finally, this week the temperature dropped well below the freezing point. We have now arrived in the real Arctic. Consequently, we regularly steamed through large areas with new ice formation.  However, these areas were difficult to identify because the new ice was already covered by snow.

Everybody is healthy, though exhausted, and send their greetings to the people at home.

Wilfried Jokat
September 21, 2008
80°40`N 166°40’E, -7.0°C