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Old News
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Tuesday, 11 October 2011 12:52 |
1. A hot water drill will melt through the frozen ice sheet, which is up to 3km (2 miles) thick. After drilling, they will have an estimated 24 hours to collect samples before the borehole re-freezes 2. A probe will be lowered through the borehole to capture water samples 3. A specialised corer will then recover sediment from the floor of the lake through the same borehole. Source: Subglacial Lake Ellsworth Consortium
1. A hot water drill will melt through the frozen ice sheet, which is up to 3km (2 miles) thick. After drilling, they will have an estimated 24 hours to collect samples before the borehole re-freezes 2. A probe will be lowered through the borehole to capture water samples 3. A specialised corer will then recover sediment from the floor of the lake through the same borehole. Source: Subglacial Lake Ellsworth Consortium
British expedition is going to Antarctica to search for life. Their plan is to dig, with hot water, three kilometres down the ice.
The plan is to sample a lake under the ice with hopes to find forms of life, unknown today.
A bonus is finding clues to future climate change impacts.
The BBC reports the team is the first to sample a sub-glacial Antarctic lake.
"Our project will look for life in Lake Ellsworth, and look for the climate record of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet," said the project's principal investigator Professor Martin Siegert from Edinburgh University.
"If we're successful, we'll make profound discoveries on both the limits to life on Earth and the history of West Antarctica," he told BBC News.
The picture on the right explains how this will be done. The unique equipment is specially made for the assignment, which received 7 million pounds by the UK's Natural Environment Research Council.
"This is an unknown environment - we don't know for example whether there will be dissolved gases in the water," Matt Mowlem, the designer of the equipment said.
"So the water at its pressure of 300 atmospheres will be sampled. But when we pull the probe up and the flasks hit the cold air in the borehole, the water will try to freeze; the pressure then increases to around 2,700 atmospheres, and that's greater than anything experienced in ocean engineering."
Once the probe has been hauled up, a coring device will be lowered down the borehole to take samples of the lake floor sediment.
Click here to see a video of the story by BBC. |
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Old News
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Monday, 10 October 2011 09:19 |
Arctic Trucks 6X6
Arctic Trucks 6X6Icelandic company Arctic Trucks has finished building a new six wheeler truck, specially made to drive in the Antarctic. The foundations are a Toyota Hilux.
The car has enormous amounts of carrying capacity, a unique torqueand exstensive mileage but still spends less fuel then compatible vehicles.
This is not the first time the Icelanders have made a car for the Antarctic, by no means. They have already led successful expeditions to the South Pole.
Arctic Trucks has also been in Greenland, in Dubai and even drove to the Magnetic North Pole with famous British TV show Top Gear.
Click here to visit Arctic Trucks website. |
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Old News
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Saturday, 08 October 2011 12:50 |
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The Arctic Portal is strengthening its IT team with following 3 positions:
Master's level GIS/SDI specialist to further develop the Arctic Portal Inter-Map mapping system and work in other GIS /SDI related Arctic science popularization projects.
The successful candidate must have demonstrated expertise in Geographic Information Science, GIS applications and spatial data infrastructure and should preferably have a degree in geography or database technology / computer science. The position also requires excellent communication skills in English, ability to work independently as well as ability to take leadership. A strong interest in advancing the scientific endeavour through facilitating access to existing knowledge is an advantage as well as knowledge and interest in geographical data. Knowledge / interest in Arctic matters is important.
B.Sc or Master's level programmer to further develop the Arctic Portal web environment.
The successfull candidate will participate in a progressive technical team that works towards creating a state of the art web design including web 2.0 technology. In addition, the candidate will, in cooperation with others, develop the Arctic Portal Inter-Map mapping system and work in other GIS /SDI related Arctic science popularization projects. The successful candidate must have demonstrated expertise in Adobe Flex / Flash, and SQL, as well as having broad knowledge of html, PHP, CSS and Java. A knowledge in geographical data is an advantage as well as knowledge or interest in Arctic matters.
Data Information System Development
One of the main responsibilities of the successful candidate will be the newly started large scale integrating EU FP7 project: "Changing Permafrost in the Arctic and its Global Effects in the 21st Century – PAGE21."
The PAGE21 project aims at understanding and quantifying the vulnerability of permafrost environments to a changing global climate. The project will heavily rely on the production, standardization, and dissemination of archived and new permafrost and environmental datasets.
The responsibilities of Data Information System Developer include:
- participation in the team effort to inform development of a sustainable management system for PAGE21 and permafrost data at large (GTN-P)
- creation of a data information system encompassing data archiving, distribution, and visualization
- Retrieval and standardization of existing data products on permafrost and distribution of datasets in model-ready formats.
These responsibilities will be conducted in cooperation with the International Permafrost Association and the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Germany. They will build on existing frameworks (i.e. NSIDC FGDC, ESA DUE Permafrost), and existing guidelines from global and regional observing systems (GTN-P, GTOS, GCOS, SAON, Global Cryosphere Watch).
Candidates should have at least M.Sc. as well as practical experience for at least 3 years in Earth Sciences, Ecology, Data Management, Information, Library Science, or another relevant field. The successful candidate will have demonstrated excellent communication skills (in English), and a strong interest in advancing the scientific endeavour through facilitating collaboration and access to existing knowledge. The successful candidate in this position will be expected to work independently and take leadership, but also to be an active member of the Arctic science observing communities, engaging in professional development training opportunities and seminars. Technical and/or intellectual knowledge of data management systems and in particular of the ICSU Data Management System would be a plus.
Location
The GIS specialist and prgrammer positions are permanent and the postdoctoral position for 4 years with a possibility to extension. All positions are situated in Akureyri, Iceland. For more information, please visit www.akureyri.is/english, www.visitakureyri.is
For more information, please take a look at The Arctic Portal homepage, The Inter-Map mapping system or contact Leena Viitanen, Project Manager, Arctic Portal (
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
phone +354-461 2800, or Director, Halldór Jóhannsson phone +354-899 2828) |
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Thursday, 06 October 2011 12:12 |
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Hundres of thousands of old barrels with waste-oil are dumped on Franz Josef Land. (Photo: Russian Polar Foundation)
Hundres of thousands of old barrels with waste-oil are dumped on Franz Josef Land. (Photo: Russian Polar Foundation)Russia has put 10 million Euros into a project aiming at cleaning the Arctic. Environmental issues are high on the Russian Arctic agenda.
“We want the Arctic to be clean,” says Yuri Trutnev, the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment in Russia.
The Arctic Council has priority project regarding the Arctic environment and the 10 million Euros go into that pot, especially projects which concern pollution prevention.
NEFCO (Nordic Environment Finance Corporation) will manage the funds and Magnus Rystedt, the Managing Director, was very pleased with Russia’s contribution.
“We are extremely delighted with the fact that the Russian government is taking an active role in supporting environmental protection in the Arctic region. The financial boost provided under this agreement will enable us to finance a wide range of environmental projects in the Russian
Arctic within the near future,” Rystedt said.
Source: BarentsObserver
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Old News
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Wednesday, 05 October 2011 13:53 |
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Yamal icebreaker at the North Pole (Photo: Yaroslav Nikitin)
Yamal icebreaker at the North Pole (Photo: Yaroslav Nikitin)Lack of icebreakers will most likely halt any tourism activity by cruise ships on the North Pole next year. Because of increased traffic by Russian vessels in the Northern Sea Route the icebreakers have enough to do.
Director for Fleet Operations in Atomflot, Andrey Smirnov, has confirmed this in the Russian media.
Russia wants to increase its traffic even more next year but lack of icebreakers and ships who are specially strengthened for sailing in ice covered waters will hinder traffic to the North Pole.
According to Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Russia plans to spend RUB 20 billion for the construction of a new nuclear-powered icebreaker in the near future. Funds have also been allocated for the construction of three shallow-draft diesel-powered icebreakers which, because they are part of a newer and more advanced class, will be able to replace five old vessels.
According to Smirnov tourist cruises in the Arctic are only profitable if there are no less than two-three cruises per season: - One single cruise does not pay off.
Cargo transport through the Northern Sea Route is expected to skyrocket in course of the next decade. Russia’s Ministry of Transport believes cargo transport through NSR will increase from last year’s 1.8 million tons to 64 million tons by 2020.
Russian icebreakers have been transporting tourists to the North Pole for 20 years. The agency selling trips to the North Pole has already scheduled a trip with the largest of the Murmansk-based icebreakers, 50 Years of Victory,
for the summer of 2012, the Barents Observer reports. |
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