We are ready to start – About Super-Puma, polar bear, kastenlot and OBS

At 22:39, twilight times, loud unusual noise above us. The long-range rescue helicopter (also known as “Super Puma”) is arriving to take-over our patient. For preventive medical reasons captain and doc have decided that a second crew member will also join this helicopter transport. The whole action of takeover of the two persons just lasted 12 minutes (!). Exactly at 22:51 the helicopter starts the trip back towards Longyearbyen. Our best wishes are with the two patients. Good and safe trip home and quick recovery! Deep respect and many thanks to the rescue team for this excellent and professional job!

Wednesday and Thursday (12 and 13 Sep 18). No real big events. We are still steaming through the Russian EEZ – no permission to do any research. Thus, we mainly continue testing instruments, introducing the “tyros” into the different types of geological methods, techniques and instruments that are used on deck and in the labs, etc. Furthermore, a series of further talks are given in the third ArcTrain seminar. As we are still steaming towards the east, we set the clock another hour forward (being now five hours ahead of UTC time).

Around 18:00, the geologists get their first station. A “Giant Box Corer” (“Großkastengreifer” – GKG) is used to sample the undisturbed near-surface sediments. At 21:00, the GKG is on deck. A perfect run - the large box (with a cross section of 50cm x 50cm) is almost completely filled with sediments that is now available for sampling by the scientists onboard. Certainly enough that all people get the material they need for their studies. At the same time when the GKG people are “playing with the mud”, our “super corer”, the Kastenlot, a large-sized 12m long box with a cross section of 30cm x 30cm and equipped with a 3.5 tons weight on top, is going down to the sea floor. At 22:41, the kastenlot is reaching the seafloor. Another hour later, the core is on deck, almost 8 m of penetration, the „Zipfelmütze“ preserved under the core catcher (Fig. 3) – an optimum run!

The Kastenlot core is on deck – however, the work of the deck’s people is not finished yet. The two giant boxes still have to be separated from the 3.5 tons weight and transported into the lab – a not easy and heavy work that needs strong help from the deck’s crew. This work is done close to midnight – enough for today with all the kastenlot work. The next step, that means the opening of the kastenlot boxes, we will leave for tomorrow. Now, we are just steaming towards the east, towards the “OBS area”.

Saturday (15 Sep 18). In the morning, first bad news from our ”Weather Max” to the sea ice people: Weather conditions are too bad for doing any helicopter flight today. However, we are already thinking about alternatives during the coming “OBS” activities to make the sea ice people happy again – let’s see!

During the OBS activities we are also able to accomplish some of the wishes of the sea ice people. A sea ice group led by Gunnar Spreen (Uni Bremen), is using the Mummy Chair to get on the ice. Four persons, two for the work on the ice and two for the security (i.e., polar bear watch and handling the safety rope connecting people outside with the Mummy Chair) are under the way (Fig. 5). Their mission is to deploy a drift buoy and to measure sea ice thicknesses. Both actions are carried out successfully. The drift buoy sitting on the ice floe will now start its journey through the entire Arctic Ocean towards Fram Strait, the exit to the North Atlantic.

During the next OBS station, a similar sea ice action was planned as well, however, it remains a plan. A big hungry polar bear shows up (Fig. 6), comes close to the ship looking for a late afternoon snack or a dinner meal. Thus, our own mission becomes a “Mission Impossible”, and we continue to the final OBS station for today. There, everything seems to be ok. Gerit and Heike Zimmermann (geochemist from the AWI Potsdam) are on the ice (of course with two further people responsible for the safety of the group). They can start with their activities, can do some ice thickness measurements. When they continue with their ice coring, the main part of their mission, “he” shows up again (or is it his brother?). In any case, it’s a polar bear and our sea ice mission has to stop immediately, within a few seconds all people sit in the Mummy Chair for a safe ride back to the ship. With these final activities a very successful and interesting day comes to an end.

Sunday (16 Sep 18). Early Sunday morning. The second geological station is on the today’s program. We are still working in the Gakkel Deep area, 5000 m of water below us. Thus, running the sampling gears takes some time. At 02:00 the GKG goes to water, the gravity corer (“Schwerelot” – SL) follows three hours later (of course after the GKG is on deck!). Again, both runs are very successful.

After having finishd this station, the geology says “goodbye“ for work on deck during the coming three days and gives the lead to the geophysicists (the cruise lead, of course, remains in the hand of a geologist). In about an hour, the geophysicists will start deploying their airguns and streamer, the beginning of a long west-east seismic profile. What’s behind this project, why they are doing this? These questions will be answered in the next weekly report.

That’s it for today.

We are in a good mood and send our best wishes to all our families and friends at home.

Ruediger Stein

(Sep 16, 2018)