The cruise with the icebreaker RV Kronprins Haakon has been underway since 27 November and will conclude on 17 December. On this final and fourth cruise for the GoNorth research project, scientists from a total of seven institutions are participating, out of the 13 institutions that are part of the GoNorth consortium.
On this cruise a research team from the Department of Earth Science (PHAB) and collaborators from GEUS (Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland) are leading the collection of geophysical data on the expedition. The aim is to uncover the early history of the opening of the Fram Strait in the Polar Sea, and to study a small basin north of Svalbard: the Sophia Basin.
The research team — Alexander Minakov and Carmen Gaina (University of Oslo), together with Thomas Funck from GEUS and others — are particularly interested in investigating the two submarine mountains in the Sophia Basin: Mosby and Polarstern.
Data from this area can provide important information about the tectonic and magmatic events that influenced the opening of the Fram Strait.
"Climbing" the Polarstern seamount with an ROV
Early on 9 December a seismic line was acquired that revealed the overall structure of the Polarstern seamount — and then things improved even more. From the ship’s control room the team guided the remotely operated vehicle (ROV) Ægir 60002 to the foot of the seamount and slowly “climbed” up its flank (see Photo 1).
The dive was unprecedented: “We were the first people to see this seamount landscape and the abundant life that inhabits it (see Photo 2). We observed many rock types, a variety of sedimentary features and possible volcanic structures at the summit,” the enthusiastic researchers reported afterward.
The researchers also succeeded in collecting several rock samples with the ROV as it climbed the flank. These samples will be used to determine the nature of this deep sea seamount. Hopefully they will be able to estimate the age of the formation and reconstruct the history of how this mountain structure formed.
Understanding the formation of such seamounts and their role in Earth’s habitability through time is one of the research focuses of the Centre for Planetary Habitability (PHAB) at the Department of Geosciences, University of Oslo — PHAB is one of UiO’s Centres of Excellence.
Notes:
1. The NFR grant 325984 for project DYPOLE - Dynamics of polar confined basins – The Eurasia Basin from breakup in greenhouse to present in icehouse conditions funded the participation of Carmen Gaina and Alexander Minakov in this expedition
2. Ægir 6000 is Norway's national, deep-sea Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV), a powerful underwater robot designed for scientific exploration, sampling, and instrument deployment down to 6000 meters water depth, operated by the University of Bergen (UiB) as part of the Norwegian Marine Robotics Facility (NORMAR)