Two icebreaking ships have become the first surface vessels to traverse the Canada Basin, the ice-covered sea between Alaska and the North Pole.
The scientists aboard the ships were engaged in oceanography, marine geology and geophysics observations in the unexplored region to better understand the Arctic's role in climate change
The Swedish vessel Oden and the U.S. Coast Guard's Healy completed the historic trek in September.
Although the same area had been crossed by submarines, the central Arctic Ocean is Earth's least explored ocean area by surface ships due to floating sea ice that, in some areas, is more than 10 feet thick.
Jim Swift of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography said the Canada Basin crossing was made possible because of a reduction in the Arctic Ocean's ice cover.
"Some indications have shown the ice volume in the Arctic Ocean has reduced nearly 40 percent since the time submarine transects began more than 40 years ago," said Swift. "There is some scientific debate about the actual percentage, but there is no doubt of the thinning in many areas of the region."
Other expedition scientists were from Sweden, Finland, Canada, Germany, Norway and Denmark.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International
Related stories:
Arctic ice on the verge of another all-time low
Following last summer's record minimum ice cover in the Arctic, current observations from ESA's Envisat satellite suggest that the extent of polar sea-ice may again shrink to a level very close to that of last year.
Arctic sea ice drops to 2nd lowest level on record
(AP) -- Arctic Ocean sea ice has melted to the second lowest minimum since satellite observations began, according to scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center. Sea ice melt recorded on Monday exceeded the low recorded in 2005, which had held second place.
RV Polarstern on its way to East Siberian Sea
Bremerhaven, August 19th 2008. German research vessel Polarstern, operated by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association, transits the Northwest Passage for the first time. Polarstern left the port of Reykjavik on August 12th, sailed around Greenland on a southern course and is located right in the Northwest Passage. Its destination is the East Siberian Sea where geoscientific measurements at the junction between the Mendeleev Ridge and the East Siberian Shelf are at the focus of the participants of this expedition. The measurements striven for in the framework of the International Polar Year shall help to understand how the undersea ridges and basins were built. This expedition takes the researchers in 68 days around the North Pole because the return voyage is to lead via the Northeast Passage.
North Pole could lose summer ice
(PhysOrg.com) -- While the summer of 2007 saw record low sea-ice coverage of the Arctic Ocean, a six-year study of the Arctic's sea ice has confirmed its ongoing, massive shrinking and drastic thinning.
Successful series of measurements in Arctic sea ice
The German Research Vessel Polarstern had to prove its ice breaking capabilities in Arctic waters to gain data on two series of long-term research measurements. After working in regions up to latitude 82° N, Polarstern of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association will enter port in Reykjavik (Iceland) on August 10th.
Pacific shellfish ready to invade Atlantic
As the Arctic Ocean warms this century, shellfish, snails and other animals from the Pacific Ocean will resume an invasion of the northern Atlantic that was interrupted by cooling conditions three million years ago, predict Geerat Vermeij, professor of geology at the University of California, Davis, and Peter Roopnarine at the California Academy of Sciences.
Arctic Map plots new 'gold rush'
Researchers at Durham University have drawn up the first ever 'Arctic Map' to show the disputed territories that states might lay claim to in the future.
Patagonian glacier yields clues for improved understanding of global climate change
Although ice cores obtained from Antarctica have now provided more than 800 000 years’ worth of climate records, analysis of them alone is insufficient for understanding the history of climatic interactions between the diverse regions of the world. Boreholes drilled during the 1990s on six glaciers in the tropical zone of the Andean Cordillera gave rise to a substantial collection of data on the changes and developments of the tropical climate of the Southern Hemisphere.