ARCTIC CORING EXPEDITION EXPEDITION AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2004 AUGUST - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

ARCTIC CORING EXPEDITION EXPEDITION

AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2004 AUGUST SEPTEMBER 2004

• Part of the Integrated Ocean Drilling

g g Program (IODP)

• Sponsored by Americans, Japanese, and

ECORD a consortium of European and Scandinavian countries, plus Canada

Purpose Purpose

• Scientific expedition to take a core from

Scientific expedition to take a core from the Lomonosov Ridge near the North Pole.

• Core to be analyzed for:
• Core to be analyzed for:

– Climatic History of the Arctic Ocean over past 50 million years 50 million years – Duration of permanent ice over Pole – Origin of Lomonosov Ridge g g – Sedimentation rate on Lomonosov Ridge – Etc. First core ever from this region. g

Schedule of Trip Schedule of Trip

• Met Tromso, Norway on August 6th, 2004
• I went onto Icebreaker Oden
• Took off with Vidar Viking at midnight

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• Met Sovetskiy Soyuz at ice edge 81º N
• Arrived at coring site on August 11th

Arrived at coring site on August 11

• Cored for 3 ½ weeks, until September 7th
• North Pole on September 8th
• North Pole on September 8th
• Back in Tromso on September 12th

Lomonosov Ridge

Lomonosov Ridge

TROMSO, NORWAY

TROMSO, NORWAY

Oden Oden

Vidar Viking Vidar Viking

Sovetskiy Soyuz (Soviet Union)

Maximum Ice Class 75 000 hp 75,000 hp 23,000 tonnes Nuclear

Convoy to Well Site

Oden and Vidar Viking in Convoy Oden and Vidar Viking in Convoy

Occasional Spectators Occasional Spectators

Ice Everywhere! Ice Everywhere!

• 8

9/10 ice during transit

• 8 – 9/10 ice during transit
• Transit used leads as much as possible
• Actual route about 20% more than direct

route

• Transit to coring site took 5 days; 2 days

Transit to coring site took 5 days; 2 days less than planned

Ice Thickness

Ice Thickness

Ice Thickness

Ice Thickness

• Measured against calibrated rod
• Measured against calibrated rod
• Ice just over 1m thick near pack edge
• 2.5 to 3.5 m at coring site
• Ridges to 10m thick
• Up to 7 to 8/10 old ice at coring site
• Very severe ice conditions at site

3 m

y

3 m

Drill Site Drill Site

• Took 5 days to get to drill site at 88º N and

y g 140º E (two days less than expected).

• Site chosen on Lomonosov Ridge based

Site chosen on Lomonosov Ridge based

• n seismic done in 2001. Seismic showed

seabed sediments very well stratified and seabed sediments very well stratified and in distinct layers.

• Water depth 1 200m; sediments ~420m
• Water depth 1,200m; sediments ~420m

thick.

Ice Management for Drill Ship Ice Management for Drill Ship

• Vidar Viking the drill ship needed to stay over a specific

Vidar Viking, the drill ship, needed to stay over a specific location in the moving ice. I b k S t ki S b k Bi i fl (>500

• Icebreaker Sovetskiy Soyuz broke up Big ice floes (>500

m) into Medium floes (100 to 500 m), 1 to 3 km up drift.

• Oden broke the Medium floes to Ice Cake (3 to 20m), 0.2

to 1km updrift.

Vidar Viking Operation Vidar Viking Operation

• Vidar Viking operated with manual control

Vidar Viking operated with manual control mainly using propeller and rudder to hold position causing minimal load on boat position, causing minimal load on boat.

• V V could deviate only 50m off location

hil d illi while drilling.

• V V occasionally rammed larger ice floes.

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Vessels Protecting Vidar Viking Vessels Protecting Vidar Viking

Sovetskiy Soyuz Sovetskiy Soyuz Oden Vidar Viking

Aerial Photo

Direction

Drillship Vidar Viking

• f ice

drift

Viking (stationary) Oden Oden Large unbroken Large unbroken ice floes Sovetskiy Soyuz

Icebreaker Ice Management Tracks

Vidar Viking Oden

Ice tracking buoy

g

buoy

Sovetskiy Soyuz

Vidar Viking on Well Site

Ice Management at Close Quarters

Vidar Viking in Ice

• Ice moved continuously
• Ice from 2.5 to 3.5m thick plus ridges
• Vessel held on one location for 8 days
• Vessel held on one location for 8 days
• Ice was 7-8/10 old ice
• Drillship operated in floes 300 to 500m

diam before they were managed

DP Control on Vidar Viking

Very sophisticated control system. Manually controlled due to nature of ice loads. C t i d t k d d l k Captain and mates worked around clock.

Ice Tracking Ice Tracking

• GPS Buoys were used to track the ice floes.

GPS Buoys were used to track the ice floes.

• Three buoys placed on ice near Vidar Viking.
• Buoys transmitted their location every 5 minutes

Buoys transmitted their location every 5 minutes with accuracy of 2.5m. Max range about 5km.

• Buoys gave ice drift speed and direction

Buoys gave ice drift speed and direction.

• Vidar Viking had to rotate so bow pointed into
• ncoming ice.
• co

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• Ice breakers always operated up drift of drillship

INSTALLING ICE TRACKER BUOY ON ICE FLOE

Ice Information Ice Information

• Satellite images – only Canadian Radarsat

Satellite images

• nly Canadian Radarsat

satellite was useful due to high latitude and cloud cover and cloud cover.

• Helicopter ice reconnaissance daily.

S t ki S i i d

• Sovetskiy Soyuz ice reconnaissance and

assessment of ice.

• Ice forecasts every 12 hours based on

forecast winds.

2 n. miles

Radarsat Image Radarsat Image

August 17 08:27UTC

Icebreaker tracks

Ice Survey with Helicopter

Drills site Ice Floes GPS Track of Helicopter

Helicopter Ice Survey p y with Ice Forecast

Direction ice motion

Ice Forecast on Radarsat

Yellow line indicates where ice is coming from. Numbers are time-month-day Black ovals are large, t ti ll d i potentially dangerous ice floes Direction Ice Motion

Well Site

Sovetskiy Soyuz in Ice Sovetskiy Soyuz in Ice

CAPTAIN MAX SHIRLEY & ARNO KEINONEN ( l 2 ) CAPTAIN MAX SHIRLEY & ARNO KEINONEN (exactly 2 m) REPLACEMENT BLADES FOR SOVETSKIY SOYUZ

EXAMPLE OF ICE MILLING BY OPEN BLADES ON SOVETSKIY SOYUZ

Sovetskiy Soyuz Nuclear Control Sovetskiy Soyuz Nuclear Control Room

Nuclear Reactor on Sovetskiy Soyuz

Gym on Sovetskiy Soyuz

Swimming Pool on Sovetskiy Soyuz

Dining Room on Sovetskiy Soyuz Soyuz

Sovetskiy Soyuz

Hercules Fly Past after Drop Hercules Fly Past after Drop

LOW FLY BY

Quick-Draw Roger about to get a Ph C ll Phone Call

• Ericksson provided

Ericksson provided everyone with cell phone.

• I could phone directly

to anyone on any of the three ships and the three ships, and have private phone conversation.

• Very quiet on ship –

No PA system.

Ice Forecasting

Ice Forecasting Ice Forecasting

Empirical formula Empirical formula V 0 017 V V V Vice = 0.017 x Vwind (and 40° to right) + Vtidal + Vnon-tidal

There was no tide and no measurable non-tidal current, so

Vice = 0.017 x Vwind (and 40° to right)

ice wind

Comparison of Forecast and Measured Winds

350 400 7.0 8.0 Measured wind Direction Forecast Wind Direction Measured wind speed 300 6.0 forecast wind speed 200 250 4.0 5.0 100 150 2.0 3.0 50 1.0 9/2/04 12:00 9/2/04 14:00 9/2/04 16:00 9/2/04 18:00 9/2/04 20:00 9/2/04 22:00 9/3/04 0:00 9/3/04 2:00 9/3/04 4:00 9/3/04 6:00 9/3/04 8:00 9/3/04 10:00 9/3/04 12:00 9/3/04 14:00 9/3/04 16:00 9/3/04 18:00 9/3/04 20:00 9/3/04 22:00 9/4/04 0:00 9/4/04 2:00 9/4/04 4:00 9/4/04 6:00 9/4/04 8:00 9/4/04 10:00 9/4/04 12:00 0.0

Forecast and Measured Ice Drift Speed and Direction

Comparison of Forecast and Measured Ice Drift (Speeds are blue and Directions are pink)

Forecast and Measured Ice Drift Speed and Direction

0.30 0.32 0.34 0.36 300 360 0.22 0.24 0.26 0.28

t)

240

n

0.14 0.16 0.18 0.20

Drift speed (kt

180

Drift Direction

0.06 0.08 0.10 0.12 60 120

Forecast Ice Drift Speed (kt) Measured Ice Drift Speed

0.00 0.02 0.04 9:00 1:00 7:00 3:00 9:00 1:00 7:00 3:00 9:00 1:00 7:00 3:00 9:00 1:00 7:00 3:00 9:00 1:00 7:00 3:00 9:00 1:00 7:00 3:00 9:00 1:00 7:00 3:00 9:00 1:00 7:00 3:00 9:00 1:00 7:00 3:00 9:00

Forecast Ice Drift Direction Measured Ice Drift Direction

8/17/04 19 8/18/04 1 8/18/04 7 8/18/04 13 8/18/04 19 8/19/04 1 8/19/04 7 8/19/04 13 8/19/04 19 8/20/04 1 8/20/04 7 8/20/04 13 8/20/04 19 8/21/04 1 8/21/04 7 8/21/04 13 8/21/04 19 8/22/04 1 8/22/04 7 8/22/04 13 8/22/04 19 8/23/04 1 8/23/04 7 8/23/04 13 8/23/04 19 8/24/04 1 8/24/04 7 8/24/04 13 8/24/04 19 8/25/04 1 8/25/04 7 8/25/04 13 8/25/04 19 8/26/04 1 8/26/04 7 8/26/04 13 8/26/04 19

Date and time

Two Helicopters on Oden

Helicopters for ice surveys Helicopters for ice surveys Personnel transportation between ships Placing and recovery of ice drift buoys g y y

Deck of Vidar Viking

Moonpool added Drillrig added Contained all drill supplies Several laboratories for core analysis Several laboratories for core analysis

DRILL BIT

Corer

F d i t di t b h d li Forced into sediment by hydraulic pressure 4.5 m cores taken each time About 1 hour to recover core on wireline About 1 hour to recover core on wireline About 10 days for 420 m core

Chief scientist Ted and Project Manager Kate Project Manager Kate Moran with sample

Preliminary Analysis of a Core Preliminary Analysis of a Core

Soils Laboratory on Vidar Viking

DAILY EXERCISE CLASS RAN UP TO BRIDGE RAN UP TO BRIDGE

TRIP TO NORTH TRIP TO NORTH POLE AND BACK

Preparing Champagne for Champagne for arrival at Pole

Canadians at North Pole

Some Tourists at North Pole Some Tourists at North Pole

TOURISTS MAKING HASTY RETREAT TOURISTS MAKING HASTY RETREAT to SAUNA

A HOT TODDY AT THE POLE

Group at North Pole p

What is it like at the North Pole? What is it like at the North Pole?

FERMENTED HERRING PARTY

THE BAR

ONE OF MANY PARTIES IN THE BAR

CAPTAIN’S DINNER ON SOVETSKIY CAPTAIN S DINNER ON SOVETSKIY SOYUZ

Yamal, Sister Ship to S – S

Taking tourists to the North Pole Taking tourists to the North Pole $17,000 to $27,000 per person Makes several trips per year p p y Roared past us at 12kt

Marine Successes

• 100% successful operationally
• Vidar Viking drilled on location 8 days continuously.
• No mechanical losses due to ice, as operators kept

aware of situation and time to close down.

• Sovetskiy Soyuz performed better than expected in
• Sovetskiy Soyuz performed better than expected, in

breaking up the ice sheet.

• Oden very effective in breaking up managed floes.

y g p g

• V V performed better than expected in maintaining

location.

• Ice forecasting was good - forecasted changes in

direction of ice for ice management, and arrival of unmanageable ice floes. unmanageable ice floes.

SOME GEOTECHNICAL FINDINGS

430 M CORE – ABOUT 60 MILLION YEARS OF INFORMATION INFORMATION.

• BEDROCK IS SANDSTONE AND 80 MILLION

YEARS OLD : SHALLOW WATER CONTINENTAL ORIGIN – LOMONOSOV RIDGE BELIEVED TO HAVE BROKEN OFF SIBERIAN BELIEVED TO HAVE BROKEN OFF SIBERIAN COASTAL SHELF 55 MILLION YEARS AGO.

• 55 MILLION YEARS AGO: ARCTIC (& WORLD)

WAS SUBTROPICAL FOR ABOUT 200,000 YEARS DUE TO GREEN HOUSE GASES YEARS DUE TO GREEN HOUSE GASES

SOME GEOTECHNICAL FINDINGS SOME GEOTECHNICAL FINDINGS

• 40 MILLION YEARS AGO: FRESH WATER

FERNS (LOW SALINITY, SHALLOW WATER DOMINATED REGION)

• ARCTIC OCEAN WAS CLOSED FRESH

WATER SEA WHICH OPENED TO ATLANTIC WATER SEA WHICH OPENED TO ATLANTIC ABOUT 17.5 MILLION YEARS AGO.

• PAST 15 MILLION YEARS: PERMANENT ICE

OVER POLE

Sea Ice Extent Sept 2007

4.1 million square km

Sea Ice Extent Sept 2007 and 2008

S I Sea Ice Extent Sept 2008

Sea Sea Ice Extent Sept Sept 2008

Theoretical and Observed Arctic Sea Ice Extent