Daily Reports

Position: 89 06.2' N, 99 36.4' W, temperature - 30° C, air pressure 1018 hPa, wind 14 knots from the NW. Ice drift 0.3 knots towards northeast. Shooting seismic reflection all day. We are passing the projected outcrop level of the major unconformity on the Amundsen Basin side of Lomonosov Ridge. Deployed the sediment corer in 1460 meter water depth. Returned empty with only stains of mud in the core cutter - must have hit something really hard at the sea bed. At midnight, we

Position: 89 00.8' N, 106 59.0' W, temperature - 30° C, air pressure 1011 hPa, wind 22 knots from N. Ice drift 0.3 knots toward east. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Audun started work to improve the outside work space. We removed snow from the store room in the remains of the ice hangar to use as temporary storage space. We lost the e-mail connection. Most likely a problem of time variable satellite constellations. Audun went on a moon lit ski trip to inspect the closest bathymetry buoy (#3). It had 10 cm snow on top of the box.

Position: 88 57,9' N, 113 58.4' W, temperature - 37° C, air pressure 1016 hPa, wind 6 knots from N. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards east. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Deployed the rock dredge, water depth 1485 meter. Unfortunately, Kevlar had been paid out too fast as it hit bottom and the cable got caught by the teeth of the dredge and it was pulled with the front facing backwards. Fired up the second oven in the rear of the hovercraft cabin to increase the temperature in the floor heat radiators.

Position: 88 57.0' N, 115 58' W, temperature - 27 C, air pressure 1015 hPa, wind 2 knots from NNW. Ice drift 0.1 knot towards east. Checked radiation flux instruments. Radiation sensors are fine, sun time and IR skin temperature detectors completely covered with frost. Took sun time detector inside to thaw out. The weather station sensors were also completely covered with frost.

Position: 88 53.8' N, 120 18' W, temperature - 23 C, air pressure 1016 hPa, wind 10 knots from NW. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards northeast. Cleaned the deck area and put the cover over the insulation mats over the cabin part of the hovercraft superstructure.

Position: 88 53.1' N, 122 55' W, temperature - 19 C, air pressure 1019 hPa, wind 8 knots from SE. Ice drift 0.4 knots towards southeast. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Recovered the rock dredge at 0200 hours. The dredge contained two small rock pieces, most likely glacial erratics. We drifted out of the canyon during the evening. Dropped the corer on a ledge in 2930 meter water depth and recovered 1 meter of brown mud, probably all recent sediments. Submitted and uploaded via internet the final revision of our paper to Journal

Position: 88 54.1' N, 129 32' W, temperature - 17 C, air pressure 1022 hPa, wind 8 knots from NE. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards northeast. Shooting seismic reflection all day. The rock dredge is out.

Position: 88 49.6' N, 134 32' W, temperature - 10 C, air pressure 1016 hPa, wind 13 knots from the NNE. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards northeast. Shooting seismic all day. We just reached the foot of slope of Lomonosov Ridge in the Makarov Basin. The ice drift now turns back up the flank of the ridge. Recovered an empty dredge # 4

Position: 89 01.8' N, 137 5.3' W, temperature - 17 C, air pressure 1023 hPa, wind 8 knots from SE. Ice drift 0.2 knots toward southeast. Shooting seismic reflection all day. We could see on the seismic record that the top cover of sediments (c. 200 m thick) was thinning and sediments below an underlying angular unconformity was likely to be exposed at the sea bed. Dropped the small gravity corer at 1000 hours targeting a suspected exposure. Had problems with the capstan drum so the core was not recovered until 8 hours later. Recovery was 20 cm. of very cohesive light brown sediments.

Position: 89 11,5' N, 146 06' W, temperature - 14 C, air pressure 1029 hPa, wind 10 knots from ESE. Ice drift 0.1 knots towards southeast. Shooting seismic reflection all day. Recovered dredge # 4 at 1900 hours. Twelve fist sized rocks and one platy fragment in the bag, probably all glacial erratics. Deployed camera sled in 1390 meter water depth on top of Lomonosov Ridge at 2300 hours

Position: 88 18.7' N, 157 08' W, temperature - 17 C, air pressure 1028 hPa, wind 12 knots from ESE. Ice drift 0.3 knot towards ESE (back across Lomonosov Ridge). Blowing snow all day. Acquiring seismic reflection data all day. The dredge is out with 3000 meter Kevlar in anticipation of shallower water early Monday morning.

Position: 89 20.6' N, 168 43' W, temperature - 13 C, air pressure 1036 hPa, wind 3 knots from NE. Ice drift 0.15 knots towards east. Was finally able to recover the hydrophone. Redeployed the 300 meter long thermistor string in the vicinity of the radiation flux instrument. The radiation flux instruments have been without power for several days. Laid out a cable across the lead and started charging. Cleaned all detectors. Also the weather station was completely covered with frost, cleaned all detectors. A small crack is going in between the guide wires, but no significant movement seen.

Position: 8 17.6' N, 179 36' W, temperature - 9 C, air pressure 1031 hPa, wind 11 knots from ENE. Ice drift 0.3 knots towards east. We are drifting along the bathymetric contours of Lomonosov Ridge. Hovercraft maintenance all day; adjusting the lift fan belt. No ice activity observed.

Position: 89 04.5' N, 175 57' E, temperature - 17 C, air pressure 1021 hPa, wind 22 knots from NN E. Ice drift 0.4 knots towards North. Checked the radiation flux instruments after midnight. Sun time detector covered with rime and IR detector with snow. Shooting seismic reflection all day. At 1030 hours, Audun discovered a 10 cm wide crack in the ice right through the middle of the ice hangar. Two boxes of food needed to be moved away from the crack.