Latitude: 81°4’N
Longitude: 61°28’W
Speed: 4 knots
Temperature: 5 °C

We left Thule Air Base about a week ago and after a lot of ice, fantastic views, company from a polar bear and around 40 seals, we finally reached the Petermann glacier in the northwest of Greenland.

During the last couple of days we have managed to depart all of the onshore teams. The first team to leave was the Swedish Arctic Island team, who is going to do their research in two different areas near the Petermann Glacier, Hall Land on Greenland and the Canadian Ellesmere Island. They were flown out Monday and set up their first camp in Hall Land where they aim to find ancient DNA by drilling for permafrost sediment and collect bones. They will also determine plant species composition by collecting flora. These DNA samples will be used to re-construct past ecosystem structures and with that information the scientist want to increase their knowledge to be able to better predict what impact future climate changes will have on the ecosystem.

The second group onshore filled two helicopters with people and equipment and were flown out to Washington Land on Tuesday with the mission to understand the ice retreat history. In the way to doing so they will collect rocks samples with rock hammers and chisel for cosmogenic surface dating, which is a scientific method that dates how long a rock has been uncoverd by ice, sediment, liquid, water or sediment. By doing so the rocks can reveal how the ice sheet and sea level have changed during the last 15,000 years.

Researchers on the Petermann ice shelf. Photo: Christian Stranne

The last group out is a group of researchers from the UK and US, and they were flown out a couple kilometres up on the ice sheet. They will drill a hole through the ice with a hot-water drill and by doing so they will be able to send down a CTD to collect data and take sediment cores from the bottom. By studying the sediment and circulation beneath the ice shelf the scientist want to increase their understanding of the interaction between the ocean and the large scale channels carved into the ice-shelf base.