Swedish icebreaker departs on multi-national seabed mapping expedition in North Greenland
An icebreaker operated by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat is conducting a research expedition as part of a broader campaign with the goal of crafting a complete map of the entire ocean floor by 2030.
During the same expedition, the icebreaker Oden also reached the remote Victoria Fjord in North Greenland, thus becoming the first vessel in the world to do so.
Oden's voyage is part of the GEOEO North of Greenland 2024 Expedition, which is organised by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat. Data acquired on the expedition will be contributed to The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project.
The vessel left the Port of Thule – the world's northernmost deep-water port – at the beginning of the month. The primary geographical focus region of the expedition is the Victoria Fjord in order to assess how much and how fast the ice sheet in North Greenland can contribute to the global sea-level rise.
Despite being faced with multi-year sea ice and pressure ridges, the vessel – with its 40 researchers on board hailing from Sweden, the USA, Denmark, Australia, and Switzerland – was successful in reaching the remote fjord.
Professor Martin Jakobsson, co-Head of Seabed 2030’s Arctic and North Pacific Ocean Regional Center, is one of the two Chief Scientists aboard Oden for the GEOEO expedition. He is joined by his fellow Center co-Head, Professor Larry Mayer, who is a Principal Investigator focusing on geophysical mapping on the expedition.
“This expedition will play a vital role in enhancing our understanding of this remote and sparsely explored area, with potential implications for global climate studies, future sea-level rise and our general knowledge of the Arctic environment,” said co-Chief Scientists Professor Martin Jakobsson and Professor Nina Kirchner.
The GEOEO theme is organised around seven broad scientific goals, which will be addressed by several complementing work packages prior, during and after the expedition:
Unravelling the Late Glacial to Holocene history and dynamics of the N-GrIS
Providing new insight into the variability of the marine cryosphere of North Greenland and the adjacent Arctic Ocean
Investigating the interaction between ecosystem community composition, anthropogenic dynamics and climate fluctuations
Quantifying ecosystem production and nutrient state in changing marine ecosystems north of Greenland
Mapping of the remote ocean frontiers
Mapping the presence of gas hydrates in marine sediments and gas in the water column and atmosphere
Numerical modelling of the ice-ocean-atmosphere-geodynamic system
All data collected and shared with the Seabed 2030 project is included in the free and publicly available GEBCO global grid.
