Daily Reports

Position: 89° 04.2' N, 56° 37' W, temperature - 25° C, air pressure 1017 hPa, wind 12 knots from NE. Ice drift 0.3 knots towards south. The ice activity was very high all day. The lead between the radiation flux instruments and the hovercraft turned into a major shear zone which built piles of ice rubble several meters high. Cracks developed as splays from this shear motion and fragmented a major part of the camp area including where most of the fuel was located. The highest priority became moving the fuel bladders in relay by pumping into empty bladders sitting in still unbroken ice.

Position: 89° 06,9' N, 57° 03' W, temperature - 38° C, air pressure 1017 hPa, wind 6 knots from ENE. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards south. Skirt control repaired. Had problems getting the hovercraft off the bed created by six weeks of idling in the same spot.

Position: 89° 09.6' N, 57° 53' W, temperature - 34° C, air pressure 1010 hPa, wind 5 knots from NNE. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards south. Shooting seismic reflection, but recovered the airgun in the afternoon. Audun made GPS survey of the leads and pressure ridges in the area of our camp. We inspected the fuel cache and discovered a crack had made a fuel bladder fall into the water. We secured the bladder and pumped all its content into an empty bladder. Started to disconnect the hovercraft, but the skirt control did not respond.

Position: 89° 11.24' N, 61° 11.8' W, temperature - 30° C, air pressure 1009 hPa, wind 13 knots from NNW. Ice drift 0.3 knot towards southeast. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Continues work on the wall to improve work space. The large through- going crack has widened to 15 meters and pressure motion started. Most of the fuel pillows are now isolated on a separate floe with 15 meter wide lead in between.

Position: 89° 13.59' N, 66° 18.48' W, temperature - 30° C, air pressure 1009 hPa, wind 13 knots from WNW. Ice drift 0.2 knots towards northeast. The air gun in the water at 1400 hours and resume shooting seismic reflection. Checked the GFI weather
station, all covered with frost, but the wind speed rotor was working good. Also checked radiation flux instruments and removed rime from sun time sensor and snow from IR sensor. Audun remeasured present direction of our initial North-South direction.

Position: 89° 09.0' N, 71° 44.5' W, temperature - 20° C, air pressure 1027 hPa, wind 27 knots from WNW. Ice drift 0.4 knots towards east. Shooting seismic reflection all day. This is the position of the outcrop of the major unconformity. Recovered the dredge, only one rock specimen with sharp edges recovered. The Kevlar line had disintegrated between 100 and 200 meter, we had to cut the line after recovering the dredge. Airgun started to fire only occasionally, had to recover the gun for maintenance.

Position: 89° 06.34' N, 79° 01.3' W, temperature - 26° C, air pressure 1034 hPa, wind 19 knots from NNW. Ice drift 0.2 knots toward east. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Starts the decent from the top of Lomonosov Ridge down the slope towards Amundsen Basin. Dropped the corer to the bottom in 2050 meter water depth. The corer was recovered with only mud on the core cutter. Dropped the dredge in 2170 meter water depth. The new ice crack in the camp area had widened to about 3 meter.

Position: 89° 06.2' N, 83° 42.0' W, temperature - 26° C, air pressure 1035 hPa, wind 15 knots from NNE. Ice drift 0.2 knots towards east. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Deployed the camera sled at 0130 hours in 1450 meter water depth. Obtained about 30 minutes of video with sled moving. A half meter long eel- like fish came into view. During the afternoon, we moved over an area looking like a slide scar. Deployed the corer and let it hang at 1000 meter in anticipation of a suitable target.

Position: 89° 08,2' N, 88° 10.7' W, temperature - 27° C, air pressure 1033 hPa, wind 4 knots from NNE. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards southeast. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Audun discovered a new 2 meter wide crack between the radiation flux instruments and the hovercraft continuing past our storage area and the fuel pillows. Some shear motion.

Position: 89° 10.41' N, 88° 56.5' W, temperature - 26° C, air pressure 1028 hPa, wind 5 knots from NE. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards east. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Audun is putting up improved walls for the work area.