NSF PR 95-45 - June 29, 1995
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Arctic Ocean Provides Clues to Global Climate and Environmental Changes
Scientists from seven different countries will spend
their summer vacation on the icy Arctic Ocean, investigating
the causes of global climate and environmental changes.
Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s
Ocean Drilling Program (ODP), a research expedition
to this high northern latitude ocean will take place
from July 7 to September 3, 1995.
Sailing aboard the largest scientific drill ship,
the JOIDES Resolution, the scientists will study Arctic
Ocean effects on the transfer of heat to the atmosphere,
and deep water formation and ventilation there, which
control or influence both oceanic and atmospheric
carbon chemistry. "These water masses are sometimes
referred to as the 'lungs' of the present world oceans
because they contribute significantly to the ventilation
of global ocean water," explains Peter Blum, a staff
scientist with ODP. "Continuous sections of sediment
cores from the deep ocean floor will allow us to reconstruct
physical and chemical changes in these deep water
masses over time, at scales of tens to millions of
years, through analysis of the records preserved in
the cores." Seafloor sediments, containing minerals
and skeletons of Arctic marine organisms, are a natural
archive that records the environmental conditions
of the Arctic Ocean and surrounding continents. In
times past, Arctic waters were warmer and free of
ice. The dramatic changes in climate that brought
frigid conditions to both poles left a signature deep
in the ocean floor that can be retrieved only by scientific
drilling. This summer's expedition follows the first
exploration of the Arctic Ocean floor during the summer
of 1993, when ODP scientists drilled the world's northernmost
borehole, located about 570 kilometers from the North
Pole.
The international team of more than 50 scientists
and technicians will drill holes and collect core
samples to better understand deep and shallow water
exchange between the Arctic Ocean and the Norwegian-Greenland
Sea. These core samples will also provide information
on water mass evolution, particularly initiation and
variability of oceanic fronts in surface waters, as
well as northern deep water formation.
"We will supplement the north-south and east-west
drill site transects of 1993 with about 15 additional
holes at eight sites," says Blum. "This will provide
sediment cores from the range of latitudes and water
depths needed to reconstruct the history of these
globally important water masses."
Other objectives for the research cruise include investigating
polar cooling and the evolution of low- to highlatitude
thermal gradients in the northern hemisphere; sea-ice
distribution; and the glacial history of the Arctic,
as well as Greenland and Northern Europe.
The Arctic acquired its ice cover between five and
15 million years ago. During the past few million
years, some 26 glaciation events have affected northern
polar seas and lands. Today, this frozen region remains
one of the least accessible, and therefore explored,
on Earth.
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