August 2

Thursday. Calmer seas prevail. Lab setup begins.

Seas have calmed today, down to 20-knot winds and 10-foot swells by 9 PM. The Healy is riding smoothly, and all systems are functioning well—except for E-mail! We have lost normal communication via the science-team’s system, and this message goes out thanks to the Coast Guard.

The low pressure system off of Norway that we set off

We all found our sea legs today and went to work setting up the labs. A voyage like this involves round-the-clock scientific operations of many kinds, and that takes a huge amount of preparation. The main lab started the day as an empty shell. By dinner time, we had new shelves mounted over all the benches, most of the boxes unpacked (if not yet put away), and our instruments ready for assembly. Another full day or two of hard work and we should be ready when we enter the ice—about 36 hours from now.

We caught up with the Polarstern this morning, and for much of the day the two ships cruised in tandem only a couple of miles apart. Good communications between the ships will help during the voyage. That includes a microwave internet connection that has the two computer networks talking to one another, VHF radio communications, and fax. German scientists will visit the Healy tomorrow, and the U.S. team will go over to the German ship on Saturday for opening presentations.

This evening we sped up by a couple of knots and left the Polarstern behind us. We want to get to the first station, the location of our first scientific operations, a couple of hours ahead. That way, we can begin testing our equipment.

August 3

Friday. Last views of land. Germans visit.

Lab setup has continued. One big problem—no drawers!! We have so many small items that need to be taken out of boxes and stored, but no place to put them. The Coast Guard, for reasons that are enigmatic, is reluctant about drawers. But they are putting up plywood shelves with rims around them and dividers down the middle where we can store small stuff. The main lab bas been crawling with busy Coast Guard personnel, sawing and putting in screws.

Video: Setting up the lab

This afternoon the principal German scientists flew over by helicopter to coordinate the first stage of operations. The Healy will break ice for the Polarstern, and the Polarstern will deploy a seismic streamer, a device to measure the sediment on the bottom and reveal the structure of the seafloor.

We also wanted to sign a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to provide guidelines for the expedition and the way things will be shared between the two ships and among the scientists. In principal, each rock dredge will be equally shared between the two teams. How do we do that? And when? The U.S. team also wanted to be sure to obtain the geophysical data, which is important for planning sampling locations. But the MOU said the Germans would deliver the geophysical data "after final processing." Well, final processing may never happen! We need the data during the cruise, not after. Some of the points were sticky, but a compromise succeeded, and a sense of trust grew among the scientists from both ships.

After the meeting, the Germans got their first tour of the Healy and then returned in their helicopter for dinner on the Polarstern.

Late in the day we passed the last island that we shall see off to the port side. In the same sea vista, we saw our first icebergs, towering above the water. It’s a bit hard to believe that we will not see land again for more than 60 days.

Tomorrow we should reach the ice and deploy the seismic streamer.

August 4

Saturday. Visit to the Polarstern postponed.

Overnight we reached the ice front, and most of the entire scientific party spent a portion of the day on deck looking at the ice landscape, seeing the Healy crunch along with apparent ease. The Polarstern deployed the seismic streamer, a long cable with listening devices attached to it. Close to the ship is a towed array of air guns, which set off loud explosions that then bounce off the earth beneath the sea and reveal the secrets of its structure.

Because the streamer is delicate, the Polarstern cannot break ice at the same time as it is towing. The job of the Healy is to break a path through the ice so that the Polarstern can move along in open water in the Healy’s wake. That means the Polarstern is very near to us and provides a great view astern. The Healy picks its ways through the leads (open-water passages between the ice flows) and breaks ice where it has to. Leads are preferred, because ice-breaking slows everyone down.

There is constant communication between the two bridges of the large vessels, as speed and course changes can happen every few minutes. Captains do not like to be close to other vessels, so the atmosphere on the Healy bridge is very alert! In this game of follow the leader, the Healy always leads, and the Polarstern has to stay close enough not to lose them in the fog.

We had planned to visit the Polarstern today, but that would require that the helicopters fly. For them to land and take off, the ships have to stop. But we could not stop conveniently, because then the streamer behind the Polarstern would sink. Foggy and icy conditions do not favor helicopter flights today either, so the visit has been postponed.

Meanwhile, inside the Healy, tests of our lab equipment and planning for the first dredges continue.

August 5

Sunday. Visit to the Polarstern. First helicopter ride.

Today a group of us visited the Polarstern. To get there, we needed a helicopter, and the Coast Guard helicopters do not yet have permission to land on the German ship. We therefore rode German helicopters, wearing bright orange jump suits and durable helmets. It was a thrill to travel close to the ice between the two ships.

On the Polarstern we saw the lab setup for rock processing, and then we settled down for negotiations about where to dredge. Making such decisions is simple when there is one ship and one chief scientist, usually the most experienced person at sea. One person decides and faces little objection! In this case, however, the Healy alone had multiple investigators with much experience and strong opinions, and we also have to negotiate with others.

The Healy scientists have objectives tightly focused around rock and water sampling. The Germans have a much broader scientific program, including geophysics, sediment studies, studies of the Arctic ice, and more. This makes decisions complicated. It is a bit as if five or ten people lived together and had to negotiate each night about what to have for dinner, who would drive the car, and where the car would go! In our case the negotiations involved even the time zone in which each ship would operate. Would we have to go through this every day?.

The plan was to plan, then have coffee (with fresh fruitcake), plan some more, have champagne, dinner, and return to the Healy. We got to the champagne (a German Riesling, much appreciated by the team from the Healy), but then the helicopter pilot came up. "Sorry the weather is turning bad," he said. "We need to leave now." So, we would miss the meal on the Polarstern and get back to the Healy too late for dinner.

As we put on our jumpsuits, Jorn Thiede, the gracious German chief scientist, came down and saved the day. "The Healy cannot accept helicopters right now," he said, "because they are in the middle of dinner. You have 20 minutes and can eat." So we took off our jumpsuits, went up, and started in on deviled eggs with fish eggs, good cheese, chicken cordon bleu, crouton potatoes, and fresh peas.

After a few minutes, someone came in to say that the Healy was all set. So we wolfed down what we could, headed down, got in our jumpsuits, and made it to the flight deck. We reached the Healy just in time for an hour-long science meeting: everyone had agreed on a plan. Looks good! Peter Michael, our chief scientist, was able to navigate the complexities of decision-making, much as the Healy was navigating the leads. There are twists and turns, but ultimately you get where you are going!

The ice has thickened to about 4 feet, covering maybe 90 percent of the sea surface. There are fewer leads in the open water between the ice flows. Battering through the ice, jerking and rattling along, the ship felt a bit like a covered wagon on a bad road. But at this moment we are still powering along at 6.5 knots.

August 6

Monday. First dredge, with broken wire.

Today was our big day. After the long transit from Tromsø to the Arctic, we finally crossed the Gakkel Ridge. There, with potentially active volcanoes 3 miles beneath us, we chose our first dredge site.

Some 12,000 m of wire rope lay spooled on a huge drum in the hold below. Our job is to lower a dredge those 3 miles to the bottom of the ocean. Then we can drag it over the bottom to recover volcanic rock samples. The operation has tricky parts. First, we have to choose a good site that will yield rocks. Second, we have to maneuver the ship and the wire so that the dredge does not get stuck on the bottom.

The wire has a breaking strength of 32,000 lb. If it pulls more than that, then it will break. And if the wire breaks, our entire operation is jeopardized. But we still need to pull hard: no tension means that the dredge is just sliding over the bottom. You want to have some tension, enough to suggest that the dredge is passing over and picking up rock—but not too much, or the wire breaks and the dredge is lost.

The wire is the most important thing; dredges are cheap and expendable. As a precaution, to ensure the safety of the wire, we therefore install weak links on the dredge. If the ship pulls too hard, the weak links break and the dredge is lost, but the wire is preserved. To be conservative, we set the weak links on the first dredge at about 20,000 lb, comfortably less than the breaking strength of the wire. In addition, we put a pinger, worth about ten thousand dollars, on the wire 200 m from the end. With this device, we can continually monitor conditions far below, to tell us how much wire is on the bottom, and then the dredge is on or off the bottom.

At the science meeting before the first dredge, some of the more experienced dredgers on board pointed out that things always go wrong on the first station. With all the kinks and equipment problems to get sorted out, nobody knows quite what to do. Often the dredge gets deployed in the water and then has to come back on deck. The problems all get ironed out after a few dredges, but people should not expect the first one to go perfectly.

Charles Langmuir from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, an experienced dredger with many cruises behind him, and Jim Broda from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, one of the world’s most experienced seagoing technicians, ran the first dredge. The new wire rope was still shiny as it rolled off the drum and over the ship’s stern. It took an hour and a half for the dredge to reach the bottom. We then started moving the ship to drag the dredge over the volcanic terrain.

Nothing. No tension.

A half hour later, the tension on the wire gradually began to build. We started to see regular oscillations and a "bite." In other words, the tension had built up gradually, then dropped suddenly, suggesting that we were getting rocks. There was jubilation in the aft conning station. Soon we would have our first rocks from the Gakkel! More bites, and it looked as if a lot of rocks would be coming on board. There was excitement among the large group of scientists and crew who had gathered watching the tension meter.

Sean Kuhn, one of the Coast Guard marine science technicians, asked if we wanted to set a policy, so that would always stop the ship at 10000 lb and let out wire at 12,000 lb. But both these levels are far below the weak links, and Dr. Broda and Dr. Langmuir did not consider it necessary.

Now the tension started to go up a bit further—first to 10,000 lb, then to 12,000 lb. Should we let wire out to try to keep the tension lower? We wanted to bring the dredge back. But perhaps a little more pull would free the dredge, and we were still far below the tension needed to break weak links. We were still safe, but then we saw 14,000 lb on the meter, and the winch operator started to let out wire to bring the tension down.

As the winch began to move, suddenly the ship shuddered as the wire snapped at the winch drum, and we saw the wire run out the pulley and over the end of the ship. Dredge lost, pinger lost, and, most important of all, 4000 m of wire lost! One more wire break and we might not have enough left to sample at all.

What had happened? If we have defective wire, breaking at 14,000 lb instead of 32,000 lb, then we cannot pull hard enough to recover rocks reliably.

One goes to sea with spares for almost everything, because there is no shopping center around the corner. But we have no spare dredging wire. And without the wire, we cannot dredge, we recover no samples, and the Healy mission could fail. With 60 days at sea in front of us, the entire mission lay in jeopardy.

Well, you don’t cry in your beer at sea. (To make matters worse, no beer is allowed.) While we try to understand what happens, the ship should still be collecting data. So we changed plans and went to a new location. There we lowered a coring device that just bangs into the bottom, its core heads filled with wax. The impact of the fall breaks some rock and (we hope) brings back fresh volcanic glass. As this glass sticks to surfer’s wax, the core can bring up small fragments. Because modern chemical techniques require very little material, even a small amount of rock can usually serve as a complete data set.

But this technique is designed for fast-spreading ridges, with lots of young volcanic rocks. Would it work on a ridge with an ultra-slow spreading rate? We could not be certain, but with no other current options, we quickly mobilized the rock core and deployed it anyway. Meanwhile, the captain, chief engineer, scientists, and technicians all huddled around the winch and the broken wire, trying to understand what had happened.

We brainstormed about the options open to us, assuming a defective wire. We could dredge and never allow the tension to rise above 12,000 pounds, but that would make sampling very difficult. We could try to have a new wire flown in to Tromsø and go back to Norway to get it. Besides the cost, that would use up almost two weeks of invaluable ship time. We could try using electrical wire, which has a high breaking strength but is expensive and not designed for dredging.

We had lots of alternatives, but all had serious limits. What to do? Faced with limited sampling capability and the potential loss of two weeks of irreplaceable ship time, we had a major crisis. Sobered by the way things can go wrong so quickly at sea, and faced with so much uncertainty, we decided to sleep on it.

August 7

Tuesday. First rock-core results. Second dredge, with mud and biology. Wire questions resolved.

The rock core came on deck. To the surprise of everyone, it brought up the "black gold" of ocean-ridge sampling, large amounts of fresh volcanic glass!

To form glass, magma cools so rapidly (or quenches) that it preserves perfectly the magma’s characteristics. Glass also resists weathering by seawater, and any weathering that is there can be seen and avoided because it turns the glass bright orange. (Rocks, in contrast, may weather almost invisibly). Black, shiny glass is pristine, ideal for geochemical analysis.

At fast spreading rates, the frequent volcanism makes most lava flows young, and they have lots of glass. At the ultra-slow spreading rate of the Gakkel Ridge, glass might become scarce because eruptions could be twenty times less frequent, and the rocks correspondingly older and more altered.. Rock coring, also called wax coring, might not work at all. But this wax core gathered glass that looks like samples from the fast-spreading East Pacific Rise! That means young volcanism—and the possibility of hot springs associated with it. In addition, a water-sensing tool (called the MAPR) found a small anomaly in the water just above the bottom, again suggesting hot springs below.

More good news emerged from careful detective work by the ship’s engineers. They had discovered the problem with the wire. A locking pin needed to be removed from the winch during dredging, and the pin had not been removed. A checklist of necessary preparations was still being retyped, and this one little step had been overlooked. The pin kept the wire from staying on the pulley at high tension, and as the winch started to move under high tension, the wire jumped the pulley. It then broke against a sharp, steel edge. Fortunately, no one was near the winch at the time!

We all breathed a sigh of relief. We had experienced only a human error, something that we could avoid in the future. While we had lost a third of our wire, we still had enough left. If we were careful and had no more wire breaks, we had a good chance of fulfilling the mission. We chose a new dredge location and lowered the wire once again, resolved to monitor everything closely and to keep the tension low just to be safe. The dredge went smoothly and came back on deck.

Full of anticipation, we went to see what we had recovered. Mostly mud, and also a few organisms in the mud. The biologist on board, Linda Kuhnz, grew excited, but those of us most interested in igneous rock felt a major disappointment.

Still, we had a wire, we were recovering samples, and we had 60 days to go. Onward!

August 8

Wednesday.

Dredging continues. We sampled the wall of the rift valley, and this time we brought up a full dredge of igneous rocks. Virtually all of the rocks are a coarse grained equivalent of basalt called gabbro. Not expected on this ridge! The dredge will be very complex to describe, because every rock is unique. Henry Dick, out gabbro specialist, now has a smile on his face!

August 9

Thursday. A good haul. Recent volcanism.

We have now cut in half and examined every rock from dredge 3. It gave us an astonishing variety of rock types. We have actually sampled a large cross-section of the region's ocean crust.

One rock came up completely mangled, suggesting that a large nearby fault had brought all these rocks to the surface. Many basalt dikes, too, appear to have provided us with our lava samples, with much variety in them as well. Dredge 4 brought up a variety of peridotites, and dredge 5 finally picked up a good suite of basaltic lavas. A good haul!

The Healy and Polarstern are mapping the seafloor at every step. Together, the two ships have a multibeam system, which uses different arrays of power supplies, called transducers, to send and receive acoustic signals. Each beam looks at a small portion of the seafloor, and the combination offers both precision and a huge field of data.

Already, the brand-new map places dredge 5 at an important transition in the ridge. To the north and east, the ridge appears broken up, with little evidence of recent volcanism. To the south and west, we believe we have found many young volcanic features. Even large volcanic ridges may well extend many tens of kilometers in the middle of the rift valley. We can expect more young lavas ahead!

August 10

Friday. Mapping bathymetry and the rift valley. Processing rocks and sea life.

We have slowed down sampling operations. That way we can make rapid headway, thanks to good ice conditions to the far western end of the Gakkel, near the Fram Straight. We thought that the ice would grow progressively more packed, blocking us from making it all the way to the end of the ridge. But with these favorable ice conditions, we are heading west as fast as we can.

The Healy is breaking the way in front, while the Polarstern runs geophysical surveys along a broken path. Together, we are collecting solid seismic data —and the first good map of the bathymetry. Ships have rarely crossed this region before, and none so far have had our high-powered map-making systems. As our ship steams forward, an entirely new view of the seafloor unfolds on our plotters, features never before seen by human eyes.

The ridge appears remarkably robust in young volcanism. We can make out a well-defined axial valley, with volcanic ridges running all the way down the center of the rift valley and abundant young volcanic cones. We plan to turn the corner at the end of the ridge, so that we enter the Lena trough. Then we shall reverse course and sample further on the return trip.

The big gabbro dredge continues to occupy much of the lab space, because each rock deserves detailed investigation. Basalt dredges are being processed more rapidly, and we are preparing the first samples of fresh volcanic glass for chemical analysis by a technique called direct-current plasma spectrometery (DCP). Kerstin Lehnert is putting the DCP through its paces, running standards in preparation for the first chemical results.

Thanks to the MAPR units lowered on each dredge and rock core, we are recovering good data on water temperature and turbidity. The data show surprising structure in the lower part of the water column. Hedy Edmonds, the geochemist in charge of water-column operations, is giving it intense scrutiny.

To the delight of Linda Kuhnz, most of the dredges are bringing up animals. She will have lots of organisms to describe. Linda gets the first crack at every dredge as it comes on deck. We want to make sure to remove and process biological specimens before they are damaged.

Video: a polar bear, seen from the ship

August 16

Today a "pipe" came across in mid-morning. "Tag team wrestling off the port bow, see Peter Michael and Charlie Langmuir wrestle the polar bear." This was the Captain's way of announcing that a polar bear was near the ship. Scientists and crew rushed out, as a polar bear is a rare encounter. Polar bears are the largest mammal in the Northern Hemisphere, and live in an environment where they have no natural enemies. They will attack and eat people with impunity, and anytime there is a science party working on the ice, there is a lookout with a rifle close at hand. But from the safety of Healy's bow, a polar bear generated a lot of enthusiasm. The bear was swimming in the water— how must it have felt to have the huge and mighty red Healy bearing down on it? It swam vigorously across a lead, climbed up on an ice flow, and roaring its discontent at this intrusion into its domain, fled across the ice. All this happened only a few hundred yards from the ship, and there was some clear video footage!

August 17

We have had terrible problems with communications out here. There is a "firewall" between the Coast Guard computers and the science computers, and whenever the science computers were connected, it dragged the entire system to a halt. No scientists were allowed on the Coast Guard side, and the science side was not working. Communications blackout!

We have had only a few hours a day for some sleuthing, and the techies on board were tearing their hair out. But yesterday they found the problem. One of the science computers that came on board with us had infected the entire science network with a virus. "Code Red" ate up the entire satellite bandwidth and prevented any communications from being transmitted or received. That's all we needed to know. The virus is out, and (let's hope) we are back in touch.

We are now on the largest volcanic ridge in the entire Arctic, and we are bringing up sample after sample for fresh basalt — exactly what we came for! We may have had doubts that dredging would work up here, but thanks to the Healy — and relatively good ice conditions — we can do our work well. Up here, you just get used to something: you cannot go where you want to go. You go where the ice allows.

This morning came a great moment, a polar-bear sighting close to the port bow. The bear came close enough for some great views as it splashed in and out of the water — wondering, no doubt, what this huge red monster was doing in its territory. Pictures will follow shortly!

August 19

"You go where the ice lets you go"

Sampling continued today near 84 degrees 30'N, 2 degrees 30'E. This location yielded a very unusual chemical composition of basalt on the way west — never before found on an ocean ridge — and we want to find out if this composition is a fluke or characteristic of this area.

Sampling has been difficult because of ice conditions. Normally at sea in the mid-latitudes one chooses a location and directs the ship to go there to sample it. But the ship track in the ice is more like a doodle pattern, and it can be very hard to get exactly where you want to go.

To have us understand this better, the Coast Guard suggested that the watch leaders go up to the bridge to try driving the ship through the ice. It's a thrill, trying to steer a huge ship down leads through the ice —it's something like a slalom course. The Navigator said "you go where the ice lets you go." And it's true, the ice bumps and turns the ship, and thick flows are too difficult to get through, so you have to steer in a way and direction that accommodates the action of the ice. Having become better educated, we now choose multiple possible sites, and head up to the bridge to work with the Coast Guard personnel to find what is possible, and where the ice will let us sample. That has made sampling much more efficient — provided we are not stubborn about sampling a particular spot. Since we are doing a regional survey of a large area for the first time, we have quite a bit of flexibility in that regard.

Sunday dinner is always a special meal, and tonight we had seafood over spinach pasta, filet mignon, green beans and spinach. Quite a treat!

The weather has continued mixed — some snow flurries today, but no accumulation on deck.

August 20

Popping Rocks and Fresh Glass!

We completed sampling the zone of young active volcanism south of 84 degrees 30 minutes north. Dredging has become much more efficient, and we were fortunate to find the axis of youngest volcanism, and bring up large amounts of very fresh glass. As Jim Broda, the senior marine technician from Woods Hole Oceanographic, carried one of the dredges into the main lab, one of the pieces of glass went "pop" and jumped up in the air. Then a few more went off. This was a "popping rock", which is a glass with so much gas in it that when the rock is de-pressurized by coming to the surface, the bubbles pop. The glass pieces act a little bit like large Mexican jumping beans. Dave Graham, the noble gas geochemist on board, is ecstatic, because these rocks are very rich in the gases he studies, and are very rare in the worlds' oceans.

The next dredge was in a deep at the very end of the volcanic segment. We were not sure whether we might just get sediments and old basalts. Instead, the rocks were by far the freshest we have recovered. As people filed into the main lab at 5AM carrying the samples, a whoop went up at the glistening fresh lavas. One sample was a spectacular lava tube two feet or more in length, filled with large white crystals of plagioclase feldspar, and surrounded by a few cm of perfectly fresh glass. It's one of the most spectacular pieces of lava that many of us have ever seen recovered from an ocean ridge.

We then left the volcanic axis and headed for the rift valley walls to try to dredge peridotite. Henry Dick, the peridotite expert on board, chose the site. Will the peridotite that has been so elusive in the volcanically active area be recovered?

August 21

Tuesday. Basalt vs. Peridotite, The Science and the Attitudes

The next dredge recovered old basalt, but following that we moved slightly to the north and carried out two successful peridotite dredges. It appears that there is a fundamental division in the Gakkel Ridge between a volcanically dominated area to the south and west, where basalts are common and peridotites are rare, and a region to the north and east dominated by extension and faulting, where peridotites are everywhere and basalt is difficult to find. This division of the ridge into two distinct provinces has made it somewhat difficult to accomplish one of the cruise objectives, which is to recover basalt and peridotite from the same latitudes all along the ridge.

Why? Central questions we are addressing are the composition of the earth's mantle, and how it melts to form ocean ridges and create the ocean crust. We know the broad outlines of the process. Ocean crust is formed by partial melting of peridotite. The melt becomes basaltic lava that rises and erupts to form the ocean floor, and residual peridotite is left behind in the mantle. Faulting sometimes brings the peridotite up to the surface, which makes it available for sampling. Peridotite, therefore, is the remains of the parent that melted to give rise to the basalt, and each gives a different perspective on the process. The basaltic glass is ideal for geochemical work, and gives a pristine magma composition. The mantle peridotites are far from pristine—they are unstable in the presence of seawater and inevitably become highly altered in the submarine environment. But they contain a few small mineral grains with valuable information about the earth's interior. The two rock types actually complement each other very well. Together, much more of the story can be revealed.

Basalt

But the specialists who work on each type of rock naturally think that their angle on the story is more conclusive. So there is an on-going tension on the ship between the scientists who want to dredge up mantle peridotite, and those who want to dredge up fresh basaltic glass. There is a kind of genetic pre-disposition towards either pristine, beautiful, shiny black glass that gives a reliable geochemical signal, on the one hand, or on the other, grungy, mud brown, gooey brecciated peridotite that gives difficult data of questionable quality. Or to put it from another point of view, to take the easy road and work on some pretty derivative product that has a complex and uncertain history, or take the hard road to investigate the fundamental source of things in the mantle.

The practical difficulty in this debate is that the two rock types occur in different areas, and are almost never recovered together in the same dredge. Basaltic glass is on the axial volcanic ridge in the center of the rift valley, and dredging is relatively easy. Peridotites occur five miles to the side on the rift valley walls, where the very steep cliffs make dredging more treacherous. It takes time to get from one place to the other, and ship time is the most valuable commodity we have out here.

Henry overseeing dredge recovery

Henry Dick, the chief peridotite proponent, is often arguing that because peridotites are so difficult to work on he needs lots of them. Although wall dredges are difficult and often do not provide the desired material, more and more of them are needed to get an adequate sample. While Henry also espouses basalt sampling, the questions he is interested in do not require that much basalt. Dave Graham, Steve Goldstein and Charlie Langmuir are the basalt proponents, with first hand experience of the great variability of glass compositions along the ocean ridges. One or two basalt dredges can give an erroneous and non-representative story. The wonderful bathymetric map also provides a host of studies that can be carried out on the volcanoes—some of them unique to this area— but only if sampling is adequate. The entire basalt story can be carried out in the absence of peridotite data.

Fortunately the Chief Scientist Peter Michael is interested in both types of rocks, and is mediating a path that gives just enough of both rock types to keep everyone reasonably happy... most of the time.

Which brings us to the present moment. Dredging of the rift valley walls has continued for the past twenty four hours. Although dredge after dredge has brought up peridotite, Henry has not been satisfied. We called the Polarstern to find out what they had been dredging in the last twenty four hours... nothing but peridotite. There are now eight dredges of peridotite in a fairly small region, but still Henry was not satisfied! A debate ensued about the next dredge site. While there is not a clear volcanic axis in this region, everyone recognized that a volcanic dredge at this point would be desirable. After extensive discussion, we chose the site that we thought most likely to be volcanic, and found a lead in the ice that would allow us to dredge it.

Happy Henry

The dredge was a classic, with many "bites" of the sea floor. It came up over the fantail with several hundred kilograms of rock—our biggest dredge yet, with one huge bolder stuck in the mouth of the dredge.

What was it??? Peridotite. As we quickly took rocks to the saw to cut them and see how fresh the rock was, Henry was called to come to the fantail. Good looking rock!!!

Finally there is a big smile on Henry's face, as he has far more rocks than can fit into the science lab. Everyone was thrilled that Henry finally had more rocks than he could handle. What will he do with all of them?

People trundled contentedly back into the science lab as the ship got underway. Meanwhile, Henry was intent on planning where the next peridotite dredge could be.

August 22

Wednesday. A Coast Guard log.

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

The morning started clear and sunny soon after midnight. We conducted helo ops (or helicopter operations) shortly after 0900. The helicopter had enough fuel for 1 hour and 40 minutes, but it returned before 1000 owing to encroaching fog. We used the tie-down crew to secure it and did a hot refuel. In this procedure, we fuel the aircraft while the engines are running and the rotors are still turning. We normally use it when conducting multiple flights. This one was for practice, though, and the pilots shut down the aircraft afterward.

Our dredges last night got lots of peridotites, which Dr. Henry Dick has been eagerly awaiting, but no basalts, much to the disappointment of our other geologists. Peridotites are mantle rock, and their study will be crucial to the understanding of the dynamics of the Gakkel Ridge—with the slowest spreading rate of any oceanic zone we know.

1530–2030, afternoon watch. 85^o 15.8 min N latitude, 010^o 43.5 min E longitude. Wind from 160^o true at 13 knots. Barometer at 30.14 in. and falling slowly. Thick ice coverage in large floes. Temperature 29^o F with heavy surface fog and sun coming through from above. Poor visibility for most of the watch, but we could just see some blue sky directly above us.

We spent most of the watch surveying from way point to way point. (Those are locations at which a ship may need guidance or a change in direction.) We had to divert around one or two large (but not vast) floes. Mostly, though, we were able to proceed in large open leads, or channels in the ice, and polynyas, areas of water with little ice. That took little ice breaking, except briefly between leads. At the end of the watch, we set up for a dredge to the NNW (350^o true) in a large polynya. The relief process took rather longer than normal, in part because my relief was attending a meeting, then had to spend another half hour on the radio making arrangements with Polarstern's science party for Thursday. Normally the watch changes at 1930.

The cooks roasted leg of lamb for dinner, one of my favorites, but it wasn't quite ready when I was relieved for chow at 1700. I asked them to save me a couple of slices, and when I finally got off watch, I found a plate waiting for me with a small mountain of lamb and potatoes. It would have fed a mediaeval peasant family for a week. I tried to do it justice, but there were still leftovers. I hope some are served tomorrow at the barbecue.

Tomorrow we are supposed to rendezvous with Polarstern and the Swedish icebreaker Oden for a party on the ice—and, of course, a science meeting. We may be exchanging rock samples with Polarstern, since our plans call for sharing all samples equally between the two ships.

We plan to offer an American-style barbecue on our flight deck, while Polarstern provides beer - definitely on ice. I haven't heard what Oden is bringing, although the fuel it has already given Polarstern will help the expedition a lot. We plan a softball game and a mountain bike race, and Oden has proposed a tug of war. If the fog lifts one, of our helos will take people up for sightseeing. Two of us brought cross-country skis.

Six people will stand "polar bear watch" with rifles. (For the technically minded, they will carry bolt-action Remington model 700's, chambered in .375 H&H Magnum). Whenever we have people on ice, we are required to have two lookouts with rifles—one aloft, in our ship's "ice conn," and one on the ice. (Helos carry a rifle, too, in flight.) In fact, tomorrow we plan to have three 2-hour watches on ship and three on the ice, so that everyone gets a chance to play. We are putting two nondrinkers in the last watch, and no one is allowed beer before a bear watch.

I brought my mediaeval Norse tunics with me and have volunteered as Santa's "mail" elf. We will post the pictures in a public folder so anyone on the ship with young children can send them home.

BMC Glenn Woodbury

 

Three ships "dock" against the ice at 85 degrees 30 minutes north.	Signpost erected by the Germans showing the distances to the home ports of the three ships. Kerstin Lehnert, US participant who is a German citizen, is responsible for the plasma chemical data on the Healy.

August 23

Thursday. Three Ships Meet on the Ice
Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

Today the Swedish icebreaker Oden, the Polarstern and the CGC Healy all met together on the arctic ice for an historic gathering. Science parties and crew from all ships descended on the ice for scientific exchange, signing of documents, a fantastic dinner on the helicopter deck of the Healy, and international soccer. The fact that beer was available on the ice to the long dry US team was not historic, but it was a nice bonus!

August 24

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

Today would have been a good day for the party. Clear, sunny and calm in the morning and most of the afternoon. Very quiet on the ship. Most people seem to have worn themselves out on the ice. I'm a little sore in the legs just from taking advantage of the opportunity to walk more than 420 feet at a time (the length of the ship).

August 25

1230 - 0330 Saturday. Midwatch.

Position 85 degrees 19.0 minutes North Latitude, 012 degrees 42.2 minutes East longitude. Wind calm. Barometer 30.12 inches and rising slowly. 7/10's multi year floes, 5 feet thick. Temperature 28 degrees Fahrenheit. We were in the middle of dredge at the beginning of the watch. At 0200 we recovered the dredge and spend the rest of the watch heading for the next way point.

The E-2's, E-3's and E-4's (Apprentices, Seamen, Firemen and 3rd class Petty Officers) were in charge of Morale Pizza night, and made... Pizza!! They also made an entire cheeseless pie for one Chief with a lactose intolerance. Greg, "the map guy" brought Sea Beam Lady, a styrofoam female Torso he acquired in Tromsø, to the mess deck for everyone to sign and decorate. Some time in the next week he is going to send her down in a CTD cast. Besides styrofoam cups, he has done styrofoam heads and has 3 really good shrunken heads at home. He's hoping she will shrink proportionately too. Early rack for me, up for the 4 to 8's.

August 26

0330 - 0730 Sunday. Dawn Watch.

Position 85 degrees 41.3 minutes North Latitude, 017 degrees 57.6 minutes East longitude. Wind from 205 degrees true at 15 knots. Barometer 30.19 inches and falling slowly. 7/10's multi year floes 5 to 6 feet thick. Temperature a balmy 33 degrees Fahrenheit with overcast, fog and visibility of half a mile. Relieved watch in the middle of a dredge again. At 0345 we stopped and began to recover the dredge. By 0445 we had the dredge on deck with a small, but respectable haul of 40 pounds glassy basalt. By 0520 we were a mile and a half away in a new dredge position in 85 degrees 42.8 minutes North Latitude, 018 degrees 0 minutes East longitude. After 50 minutes holding our bow in a floe to keep position we backed off, pivoted 180 degrees to starboard and put out another 100 meters of wire to get the dredge on the bottom and began dredging to the North in a large lead. By 0640 visibility was up to 7 miles. At watch relief at 0730 we had the dredge off the bottom and were drifting while recovering it. By the end of the watch the wind was up to 18 knots and the barometer down to 30.17 inches. Around 0900 we rendezvoused with Polarstern and began escorting her while she sounded with her air guns.

August 27

1200 Monday.

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

Position 86 degrees 00.7 minutes North Latitude, 025 degrees 31.9 minutes East longitude. Wind from 215 degrees true at 23 knots. Barometer 30.02 and falling. 9/10's multi year floes 4 to 7 feet thick. Temperature 32 degrees Fahrenheit with fog. At 1400 we hit a heavy pressure ridge which stopped us. Eventually after backing and ramming, we broke through. Polarstern, however, got stuck in the channel we had broken and was unable to get free with all 4 of her engines going. The Captain came up to the aloft conn (ice conning station), we put 3 of our 4 main engines on line, broke back in a circle and came up past Polarstern again and broke her out. By the end of the watch we had broken into an open lead in position 85 degrees 56.6 minutes North Latitude, 027 degrees 22.5 minutes East longitude. The ice is getting thicker and more closely packed, and the fog continues as we work our way Northeast up the Gakkel Ridge.

We are finally out of lettuce, so no more green salads. It's amazing that the cooks have managed to keep it until now. In these conditions hot soup is getting much more popular anyway. Good food is a primary source of morale on shipboard, especially on a long deployment like this. Our cooks turn out an astounding amount of excellent food every day, and I'm not getting any thinner.

BMC Glenn Woodbury

Monday-Tuesday

Seismics in transit and sampling on station continue We are continuing our routine of carrying out a 20-30 mile transit where seismic data are collected as Healy leads Polarstern through the ice.

Polarstern follows Healy as Healy breaks the path through the ice

Then we stop and both ships sample for 12-24 hours, with stations both in the rift valley and along the rift valley walls. Yesterday we arrived at one of the most prominent volcanic areas in this part of the Gakkel Ridge, near 30 degrees east, and spent 24 hours sampling. Healy completed four dredges and a rock core in 25 hoursþa record for us! We are getting more efficient and learning how to work in the ice better. Polarstern also completed four sampling stations. To the surprise of everyone, Polarstern recovered a large dredge of fresh glass at the base of the valley wall, where peridotites were expected. The two ships combined now have more than 100 sampling stations!

Along this part of the ridge there was a pre-existing bathymetric map that was collected on US Navy submarine wkbill during 1998 and 1999 (the SCICEX data), so the bottom is better known than it was towards the west. These previous data were an important element in being able to plan and fund our sampling expedition. But the submarine was not able to surface and get a navigation "fix" to determine its exact position in latitude and longitude, so the actual location of the map on the bottom is poorly known. It's a bit like having jigsaw puzzle pieces, each one of which is well known on its own, but its exact position in the puzzle is not yet determined. The old data need to be slid, rotated, compressed or extended to match the new Healy data. So the Healy data not only provide excellent navigation and far better resolution, but they also allow all the older data to be put in its proper place. Fortunately we have Greg Kurras on board to oversee the collection of our multibeam data , and Greg was also on the Hawkbill, so he has access to the previous data and knows it in detail. Some of the old data has been off by more than a degree of longitude, which has made planning the transits complicated. Many of us are spending a lot of time trying to fit the puzzle pieces together to make our transit route and sampling plans as efficient as possible

Several people have had birthdays while we are out here, and the birthday celebrations have gotten progressively more elaborate as time has passed. The first birthday was only a day or two after departing, and the "cake" was a corn muffin with a stick of celery in it. Things have progressed since then. Tonight, Gad Soffer, one of the Lamont students, got a surprise birthday cake, signed card, and presents! What will happen by the end of September??

August 28

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

Monday evening Greg Kurras, our "map guy" and primary Sea Beam operator, held a talk on bathymetry and physical oceanography. It looked like a third of the crew attended, which is pretty good considering how many people were either on watch or resting before the night watches. I learned a great deal about the workings of our Sea Beam bottom mapper that I hadn't known before. One of Healy's significant advantages is the Sea Beam's ability to read out graphically on the screen in real time, and produce a printed bottom chart within an hour! These talks have been great for the crew. In addition to improving morale and being an educational opportunity, knowing more about the methods and goals of the onboard scientists enables the crew to anticipate what we need the ship to do next. Personally, I have an insatiable curiosity and enjoy learning new things.

1530 - 1930 After Noon Watch. A grey day for the most part. Frequent stops for dredging and wax core casts. 1530 position 86 degrees 03.2 minutes North Latitude, 032 degrees 02.5 minutes East longitude. Wind from 230 degrees true at 12 knots. Barometer 29.97 inches and falling. 9/10's multi year floes 6 feet thick. Temperature 30 degrees with overcast and fog, visibility under a mile. Started the watch half way through a dredge. Were forced to stop when unable to make a turn tight enough and stuck into a thick floe. It's not really practical to break hard multi year ice at dredging speeds, under a knot. By 1700 the science party aft had recovered the dredge and we were en route to a knoll for a wax core. The original plan had been to start at the "up drift" position to the West, and be over the knoll when the wax core was down. However, a large floe made that approach difficult and shortly after we arrived in the area we determined that the drift was more to the North than to the East. We backtracked to a point directly over the knoll in a lead that let us head Southwest almost directly against the direction of drift while we put the core down. We were pretty successful in holding position by coming ahead slowly, and at the end of the watch we had it on the bottom and had drifted less than a ship length. After we recover the core we will meet with Polarstern again and break ahead of them to the next area, before separating to conduct our dredges and casts.

We have been underway a month, and the Command has authorized the crew 10 minutes each to call home on the Iridium satellite cell phone. I got through at 1943 ship time, which is 1243 in Seattle. After talking with my wife for a few minutes about household projects and our 2 year old daughter, I felt figuratively as well as literally on the top of the world. It was a pleasant surprise for her too, and very much appreciated. She hadn't expected to hear from me until our return to Tromsø in October.

BMC Glenn Woodbury

August 29

Wednesday. A Coast Guard log.

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

A cold morning with heavy ice coverage and excellent visibility. For the first time in several days, there was no fog. Some overcast, but a large area of clear sky visible under the north edge of the system. There was a line of icebergs embedded in the pack ice across our path at 0800 this morning. The nearest, to starboard, was tabular (low, flat topped) with a sprinkling of reddish dirt. As usual with a sight of the sun and sky, spirits are higher. Even with a library of both books and videotapes aboard, we are pretty isolated and sensitive to any stimulus, and weather is a major psychological factor for us. Polarstern was also visible on the horizon, 10-12 miles to starboard, beyond the bergs.

We have separated again to take casts and conduct dredges. One of our junior officers of the deck (JOOD, assisting the officer of the deck), a deck petty officer, woke up this morning with severe vertigo. Our corpsman administered a sedative to induce sleep. Fortunately, one of our seamen (SN) passed the JOOD qualification board yesterday and will be able to cover the watch.

At 1335 conducted a flight brief. Wind from 245^o true at 7 knots. Barometer 30.03 in. and rising. Temperature 25^o F. Ceiling 5000 ft., visibility 10 nautical miles (NM). At 1346 set flight uarters, condition 1. At 1406 launched helicopter 6559 in position 86^o 20.2' N latitude, 037^o 05.4' E longitude, enroute Polarstern taking one of our first-class marine science technicians (MST1) 10 cases of soda, 75 lb. of rice, and 10 lb. of tea. The MST1 and the air crew will be briefed on recovery of a buoy set in the ice in April that we will be trying to retrieve with our helicopters in the next few days.

1453. Set flight quarters condition 1. By 1505 had helo on deck again, unloaded passengers and rock samples from Polarstern, performed hot refuel, loaded one morale passenger and operations officer (OPS). At 1525 helo 6559 airborne again for ice recon.

1614. Set flight quarters to recover 6559. At 1620 helo came on deck, unloaded passengers, and performed second hot refuel, followed by engine and rotor shutdown at 1629. By 1645 had the blades folded and aircraft hangared. Visibility is closing in again, but we still have 2 mi. or so.

After helo ops I escorted our petty officer with vertigo down three flights of stairs to evening chow and back up to the berthing area afterwards.

1930-2330. Night watch. Position 86^o 22.1' N latitude, 037^o 21.4' E longitude. Wind from 010^o true at 5 knots. Barometer 30.09 in. and rising. Temperature 30^o F with visibility reduced to 7 NM in light snow. 9/10's multi- year floe, 5-6 ft. thick. At 1954 we stopped in a narrow lead and began a wax core cast. At 2115 Polarstern appeared 4 NM to the east, approaching our rendezvous point. At 2130 we recovered the wax core, put a second engine on line, shifted control from the bridge up to aloft conn, and started for Polarstern's position. Shortly after we got underway the snow ceased and visibility improved to 10 NM. By 2200 we were ahead of Polarstern and breaking ice up our track to the northeast.

BMC Glenn Woodbury

August 30

Thursday. A Coast Guard log.

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

Overcast and warm (relatively) with heavy ice in the morning. We were operating independently of, but not far from, Polarstern. Before breakfast I put my uniforms in the wash. Petty Officer Sandoval's vertigo has diminished and she was up. Although on light duty, she can stand her watches again. Our medical officer thinks it's a viral infection, and may take a week or two to completely go away.

At 0930 set flight condition 1. Wind from 215^o true at 4 knots. Visibility 7 nautical miles. Barometer 30.11 in. and steady. I am breaking in as landing signal officer (LSO) under Lt.Adrian. At 1000 the helo from Polarstern landed to disembark passengers. One of their people has an abscessed tooth and our medical officer and corpsman took her to sickbay for an X-ray. We loaded ten cases of soda on the helo, and it took off, returned to Polarstern, and landed again with three geologists and buckets of their rock samples. At 1105 we set flight quarters a second time and reversed the process, sending back samples of our rocks with their geologists, and by 1140 we were finished. After lunch our first-class food specialist (FS1, cook) reminded me I had my laundry in. I had forgotten it during helo ops. I retrieved it and put it away before quarters.

At 1230 we had quarters. It was Dr. Henry Dick's birthday, and we made him an honorary Healy crew member and the captain gave him a certificate with the latitude and longitude to commemorate the occasion. After quarters, at 1300, we had damage control (DC) training. My group met in the repair locker, and the chief damage controlman (DCC) gave shoring instruction. Shoring is used to reinforce decks and bulkheads when the ship is damaged or flooding and to hold plugs and patches in place. We have both wood and metal shoring on Healy.

I got my haircut before evening chow and racked ("hit the rack," or went to bed) early in preparation for the midwatch. BM3 Logan charges $4 for haircuts.

BMC Glenn Woodbury

August 31

Friday. A Coast Guard log.

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

1005. After midwatch, awoke to the sound of a pipe on the 1MC (the ship's PA) for a flight brief at 1030, followed by flight quarters. Grey and overcast, but good visibility, with a 2000-ft ceiling and a steady barometer at 30.02 in. Winds calm. As you see in the photo, typical visibility in fog this "bergy bit" rolled over as we passed.

At 1040 we set flight quarters condition 1. When I did the foreign object damage (FOD) check on the flight deck, I saw that we had our dredge wire out. No one except the helo detail is permitted on the afterdecks during flight quarters, but once the dredge is rigged and down, and once the riggers clear the deck, it's not a problem to keep dredging. Our science officer, Greg Kurras of the science party and our DC1 were passengers.

At 1107 helo 6515 was airborne to the east for ice recon. At 1201 we set flight quarters again, and at 1210 we recovered the helo safely on deck. We dredged a few more times before heading to our evening rendezvous with Polarstern. After dinner we set up the hangar as a theater for the Friday night movie, Office Space. Having a mild sinus infection, I chose to sleep early before the morning watch.

2330-0330. Midwatch. Position 86^o 33.3' N latitude, 044^o 13.4' E longitude. Wind from 335^o true at 8 knots. Barometer 30.04 in. and falling slowly. Temperature 31^oF with low overcast and fog on the horizon. Polarstern got stuck during the night watch (1930-2330), we went back to break her out, but she managed to free herself when we got within a mile. We were now in escort, breaking ice ahead while Polarstern followed, using her towed airgun array for sounding.

Our general course was 064 ^o true along the Gakkel Ridge. Our actual track depends on leads and tends to snake around the larger floes in a series of S's. We try to go 6-7 knots in open leads and 3-5 knots while breaking, but frequently the ice slows us more. Shortly into the watch I called the captain for permission, and dropped down to two engines. We are trying to conserve fuel, it is still a couple of days short of halfway through this leg. We have almost 75 percent of our fuel left but anticipate heavier ice as we get further north and east.

Landing Signal Officers (LSO's) preparing to receive helo, Woodbury on right.

Within half an hour we were stopped by harder ice between leads and had to have Polarstern stop so we could back and ram. One ram did it, and we were through. By 0010 visibility had dropped to less than 600 yards in heavy fog. Visibility was very poor with little contrast between white ice and white fog. At 0215 what appeared to be an embedded berg materialized less than 100 yards ahead. We attempted to turn to port, but there was no room for our stern to swing in the ice and we struck it hard on our starboard bow. This resulted in a short telephone conversation with the captain on the subject of icebreaking tactics in severely limited visibility. On closer examination, it proved to be a raft of several old floes tipped at an angle and embedded in a newer floe.

Five minutes later we passed a "bergy bit" close on our starboard that rolled onto its side in our wake. We warned Polarstern of these and advised them to keep to the left in our track. We had to stop and ram twice more in the next hour. Near the end of the watch visibility opened up to the horizon and more leads appeared. Shortly after our relief though, the fog began closing in again.

I was restless and stayed up a bit after watch. Running close ice escort in heavy fog is tense work, and it takes some time to relax afterwards. At 0415 I went out on deck and looked toward where I thought the western edge of America lay. Accounting for time zones, it was ten years to the minute since my mother died of skin cancer at her home in Berkeley, California. Looking at the fog and ice, I have a hard time remembering that summer. When you're underway for six months out of the year, you spend a lot of holidays, birthdays, and anniversaries away from your family.

BMC Glenn Woodbury

September 1

Saturday. Regular routine. Cold, wind, and gloom. Abundant fresh lavas recovered.

Polarstern and Healy have been in a regular routine for the last several days. Polarstern deploys small seismometers on the ice about 25 mi. ahead of the ships by helicopter, and then Healy leads Polarstern through the ice as Polarstern shoots airguns to make waves that pass through the earth and are recorded by the seismometers. We average about 3 knots through the ice, so the 20-30 mi. transit takes 7-10 hours. Then, as the geophysicists sleep and prepare for the next deployment, the two ships sample for 12-15 hours. This makes a roughly 24-hour routine and is the way we have made our way along the Gakkel Ridge to the east.

Because the spreading rate decreases eastward, the prediction was that volcanism would become more rare and the volcanics would be older and more altered by interaction with seawater. Instead, we have recovered some of the freshest lavas we have seen out here. Dredge after dredge has come up with big hauls of fresh basalt, and the MAPR instrument has been recording anomalies in the water column indicating hydrothermal activity. So there is a lot going on down there on the bottom, three miles beneath us!

The weather has entered a phase of wind and cold, and the ice has thickened. We are not sure whether this is a change of season, or of location. Seasonal shift is clear in the change in the light. At night we can see darkness on one horizon and light on the other, indicating that we are in the transition from day to night up here. It has been cloudy for days and days, and we see neither sun nor stars. With the cold and the wind, the outdoors has been a gloomy place.

Saturday. A Coast Guard log.

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

0330-0730. Dawn watch. Position 86^o 51.2' N latitude, 052^o 08.6' E latitude. Wind from 155^o true at 5 knots. Barometer steady at 30.04 in. Temperature 30^o F, overcast with 8 nautical miles visibility. 9/10's multi-year floe ice 6 ft thick. Approximate course 068^o true along the axial valley of the Gakkel Ridge in close escort ahead of Polarstern. Following the ice information our marine science officer (MSO) got on the ice recon flight, we are avoiding the area south of the track line.

Rain at quarters today. The captain passed out Arctic Service Medals to all us first timers. The criteria is 21 days continuous deployment in the Arctic (north of 66^o 37' N latitude). It's been over a month since we left Tromsø on this leg of the trip. Now I have to get a new ribbon bar and figure out where it goes in the precedence. Ironically, it's my fourth time in the Arctic, but none of the other trips exceeded 21 days at a time. We are to have Monday as holiday routine for Labour Day.

More dredging in the afternoon. I spent most of the afternoon and evening writing carpentry directions for my wife, who is trying to figure out how to install a wood burning stove in our Yurt. It's difficult to convey over E-mail without using drawings. The second class petty officers served barbecued chicken and ribs, with doughnuts for dessert for Saturday night morale dinner. By evening, the weather had changed from rain back to snow. We still donÐt have sunset or sunrise, but each day is a little dimmer, and the light is lower in the evening. On a clear day the night side of the world can be told from the day side when we are near the terminator.

About 0430 Polarstern sent up her helicopter for ice recon. After it returned, Polarstern agreed to split to opposite sides of the axial valley for wider bathymetric coverage. At 0450 we turned north to reach a track a couple of miles from, and parallel to, our original. At 0505 visibility closed in to 1 mile in fog. By 0515 it was down to 200 yards. At 0545 the fog turned to snow and visibility opened to 4-6 nautical miles. By the change of watch we had reached the new track and resumed a more easterly course. After breakfast I cleaned the head between our stateroom and the next in preparation for the XO's Saturday inspection.

BMC Glenn Woodbury

September 2

Sunday. Hump day. Fresh plans. Ice rules.

Geophysical and sampling operations have continued. Today marked an important moment in the cruise ¥ "hump day," halfway through the expedition. Hump day marks an important moment in a cruise, because everyone starts thinking differently. Now for the first time people are saying "when we get back to Tromsø" and are worrying about the limited time left to accomplish scientific objectives. A certain urgency appears in the planning and use of ship time.

A German delegation arrived on the Healy this afternoon to plan for the upcoming couple of weeks. The plan is to make a long geophysical transect towards the north, from the Gakkel Ridge to the Lomonosov Ridge. This geophysical transect is the major objective of Wilfried Jokat and the other German geophysicists. The plan originally was to make the transect at 85^o E, but the exact choice of longitude depends on ice conditions. In the last couple of days there has been close inspection of satellite images of the ice, and the helicopters have gone out on reconnaissance missions to investigate ice conditions.

Ice rules out here. If the ice is thick and covers everything, then the ships are gradually slowed down to a stop, and to make progress they have to "back and ram." The Healy is designed for backing and ramming: it can come up to full speed in a single ship length! But then all four engines are needed at full power. That uses very large amounts of fuel, and forward progress is very slow. In contrast, where there are open leads, the Healy can thread its way through the ice and maintain speeds of 4-5 knots with only two engines. Fuel is a major factor for such a long expedition. And speed is necessary to keep the seismic streamer deployed behind the Polarstern. If speeds are too slow, the streamer sinks, and has to be hauled in. Therefore for both fuel conservation and scientific reasons, a relatively open path through the ice is essential.

Peter Michael and Wilfried Jokat hovered over the ice maps with the captain and operations officer, and he realized that the ice near 85^o E was far too extensive and thick. Instead, the best ice was at 73 ^o E, almost our current longitude! That meant we should turn toward the north almost immediately. Jokat got on the radio to his German colleagues to alert them of the situation. People had to get up from sleep or keep working after long shifts, because the seismic gear had to be prepared. Some time was needed, so we decided to do more sampling in this region and depart for the north tomorrow at noon.

Sunday. A Coast Guard log.

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard

Up at 0600 to prepare for watch. 0730-1200. Fore-noon watch. Position 86^o 41.8' N latitude, 068^o 08.6' E longitude. Wind from 055 ^o true at 10 knots. Barometer 29.94 in. and rising. Temperature 26 ^oF with overcast and 10 nautical miles (NM) visibility. Separated from Polarstern at the change of watch. We continued south toward a new area to dredge near the base of a large mid-axial volcano.

Flight-deck rescueman Patrick Logan in fire-proximity suit

At the end of the watch we set up for our dredge toward the top of a small hill in position 86^o 33.0' N latitude, 067^o 34.7' E longitude. The captain called the aloft conn and asked me what the ceiling and visibility were: 2000-4000 ft. with 10 mi. visibility. Barometer 30.00 in. and rising. Temperature 25 ^o F. I figured we would be flying our helo soon. After lunch we had a flight brief, then set flight quarters condition one at 1225. I'm breaking in as landing signal officer (LSO). 1252. Launched helicopter 6559 ("Bat 5-9") with our MSO aboard for ice reconn.

After the launch I checked my E-mail. Another message from my wife, one from my older daughter, and one from my son. I settle down and compose replies¥loving, witty, and concerned by turns¥in what I hope is the right proportion for each person. They tell me of rain, summer heat, and humidity. I try to imagine it while waiting for the steel safety toes in my boots to warm up again now that I'm inside. Seattle sounds like a green and lovely place. Still, the ice draws my eye to the horizon.

1350. Set flight quarters again. 1404. Recovered Bat 5-9; disembarked MSO and one pilot. 1406. Helo airborne enroute Polarstern. 1421 Bat 5-9 airborne from Polarstern enroute Healy. 1430. Recovered helo on deck, with engine and rotor shutdown; disembarked four passengers from Polarstern's science party for a meeting. Surf and turf for Sunday's dinner. I stuck with the surf; fried prawns, scallops, and clams. In the photo, taken by E. Sandoval, you see Patrick Logan, flight-deck rescueman, in fire-proximity suit.

Set flight quarters again at 1930, Bat 5-9 off the deck at 1952 with our guests for Polarstern. 2021. Helo on deck again; embarked second pilot, two more air crew and our assistant engineering officer (AEO) for air crew proficiency flight; airborne at 2026. At 2040 went to flight quarters again. 2040. We have the helo on deck, and tied down by 2100. Flight ops again in the morning. I'm going straight to the rack.

Polar bear sow and her cub

2215. Spotted a polar bear sow and her cub on a floe ahead of us to starboard. They ran ahead of us for several miles before mother grew tired of the large red intruder and led her cub across the floe away from us at a right angle to our track. Mother bear did not want us to get close!

BMC Glenn Woodbury

September 3

Monday. Northern seismic transect begins. Will we go to the Pole?

Sampling in this region has delivered dredge after dredge of fresh basalt. The latest dredge brought up close to 980 lb.! Bringing in this much rock creates huge problems for the team that is processing samples, because there are hundreds of individual pieces and the protocol is to cut, describe, and label every single piece. With multiple dredges of this size, this protocol becomes impossible to carry out, so representative samples need to be collected. At the moment, in the main lab buckets and buckets of material are waiting to be described. It's lucky there will be some time in the next few days with no sampling so that we can get caught up.

Polarstern was ready to deploy its seismic gear in early afternoon, so Healy steamed over to the meeting point, and both ships turned north. None of us know how the ice will be, and the Healy will need to pick the best route as it goes, and send out helicopters to look ahead. The ice will determine the details of the passage. This is a time for all the petrologists on the Healy (the scientists who specialize in petrology) to get caught up and have a well-deserved rest from intensive sampling operations. Maybe we will even get a few hours of "vacation" (time when we do not need to fulfill out watch duties).

Everyone on the Healy is particularly curious about the route the ships will take northwards, because if we are forced by the ice to stay along a single line of longitude, we will end up very close to the North Pole! No U.S. surface vessel has ever traveled to the North Pole under its own ice-breaking power. If we are close enough at the end of the geophysical transit, we might be able to reach the North Pole in a short time. While that is not one of our scientific objectives, it would be fitting for the Healy to be the first U.S. ship to do that on its maiden Arctic voyage.

Heading to the Pole also depends on how quickly we can make the geophysical transect, where we plan for sampling. The time for this transect was budgeted assuming a speed of 3 knots. It we meet heavy ice and are slowed down, there will be no extra time. If we make 4 knots, we will have a day to spare! The Coast Guard crew and many of the scientists would also be thrilled to have the Healy reach the Pole, and it would be an historic moment. Will it happen? It is in the hands of the ice.

Monday. A Coast Guard log.

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

Got up early for the planned flight ops. No such thing. So I did my laundry instead.

1130-1530. Noon watch. Position 86^o 16.1' N latitude, 071^o 51.9' E longitude. Wind from 200^o true at 10 knots. Barometer 30.16 in. and steady. 8/10 multi-year floe ice 6 ft. thick. Temperature 29^o F, overcast with 10 nautical miles (NM) visibility. Relieved watch in the middle of a dredge up a small underwater hill. Set flight quarters at 1124.

At 1140 Polarstern's helicopter (Polar Heli 2) on deck, disembarked one scientist for a meeting. At 1141 Polar Heli 2 off to port. At 1156 winch tripped and ran away while easing dredge wire out; we set emergency brake and continued dredging. At 1158 winch reset; we continued and began slowly bringing in dredge wire. At 1245 set flight quarters again. At 1259 Polar Heli 2 on deck embarking visiting scientist. 1303 Heli 2 off to port returning scientist to Polarstern.

1335. Dredge on deck with 980 lb. of rock, our largest dredge by 120 lb.! One of the geologists asked me why we didn't get him the last 20 lb. to make half a ton. We are getting huge dredges lately! Here's a quote from yesterday's operations summary: "Conducted 01 very successful dredge with trawl core winch, with dredge overflowing with fresh basalt from underwater volcanic cone." Then we were off to rendezvous with Polarstern again, 3.5 mi. away. By the end of the watch we were in close escort ahead of them. No dredging for at least five days. We are enroute across the polar basin to the Lomonosov Ridge, which, unlike the Gakkel, is not a spreading zone.

After watch I read the chapter on retirements in the personnel manual. I will be eligible to retire, and plan to do so, at the end of my tour on Healy in the Spring of 2003. This is a good time to write my retirement letter: I know what I want to do¥and when. This will allow both the command on the ship and the Coast Guard to select my replacement.

BMC Glenn Woodbury

September 4

Geophysical transect continues

Everyone on board is trying to get the backlog of work done. Much of the attention of the senior scientists on board has gone into the preparation of abstracts for presentation of papers at the fall meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU). There are ten abstracts being prepared by the US and German teams. No one person can be first author on more than one abstract, and many people on two ships collected the data, so the negotiations are friendly but delicate. We had not anticipated having enough data to be able to present the initial results at AGU; the amount we have to present is indicative of the surprising overall success of the mission great map, hydrothermal events, exciting geochemistry and geophysics, very fresh peridotites. From the trenches we often lose sight of the astonishing success we are having relative to what was predicted. In general it is a quiet day as we lead the Polarstern through the ice, heading north. The time for the transect was calculated at a speed of three knots, and we have been making 4.5knots, so we are many hours ahead of schedule.

Late in the day, Healy's helicopters took off for ice reconnaissance. The recon included the route to the Pole. After their return, the pilots reported to the bridge—the route is reasonably clear! Peter Michael has asked the Captain for time estimates how long would it take to cover the 60-mile distance from the end of our scientific survey? The conservative estimate is 20 hours. Now it's up to Peter.

Tuesday. A Coast Guard log.

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

Beautiful sunny morning, unlimited visibility. Spirits up everywhere on board. Research assistants industriously working on our bounty of rocks.

1030 rolled helicoptor onto the flight deck.

1045 Fog rolled in. Continued foggy all day.

1046 1530-1930 After noon watch. Position 87^o 50.5' N Latitude, 084 ^o 00.8' E longitude. Wind from 175 ^o true at 6 knots. Barometer 30.00 inches and falling slowly. Temperature 22 ^o F with low fog, some sky visible straight up. double rainbow visible within a fogbow. Ice crystals visible in the air in direct sunlight. An hour into the watch Polarstern got stuck. We waited while they retrieved their acoustic array, backed and rammed. They got through on the first try, then redeployed their array. We maintained a slower speed after that so they could follow closer, they had no more trouble the rest of the watch. For the most part we are able to work leads along our track.

After watch I attended an evening talk given by Kerstin Lehnert of our science party on the Petrological Data Base. The interesting part to me was the concept of relational data fields, which enables a quicker search through a great deal more information than simply a large two dimensional data array. Still foggy when I hit the rack.

BMC Glenn Woodbury

September 5

Geophysical Survey ends—Heading North!

The geophysical survey ended a little after noon today. And, we are heading to the North Pole! We have a day of "ice liberty" in the schedule, and that combined with the time we have saved in the transit north gives enough time to get to the Pole without compromising our science plan. There are other positive reasons for going as well. Scientists and crew on both Healy and Polarstern are thrilled at the prospect, and it will be a big morale boost for everyone. That will help as we still have almost a month of hard work ahead of us. The North Pole is also one of the least accessible places on earth. No US surface vessel has broken its own ice to the Pole. A number of years ago, a Coast Guard icebreaker made it to the pole, but it had engine problems and had to follow a Canadian icebreaker. Healy breaking ice to the Pole would be an historic event for the United States, and also a stunning demonstration of the new US capability in Arctic science. There is a pre-festival atmosphere on Healy as everyone takes in the possibility of participating in a rare and historic event.

Wednesday, A Coast Guard log.

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

Overcast morning with excellent visibility. Held flight brief at 0830. Between 0830 and 0840 fog rolled in and reduced visibility to under 1 NM. By 1015 visibility had improved enough to fly. 1030 set flight quarters condition one. 1100 Launched helo 6559 with the Operations Officer (OPS) on board for ice reconn. 1320 Set flight quarters again. 1335 Recovered helo on deck, after their return from the North Pole. Ice from our current position to the Pole looks pretty much the same. At quarters the Captain tells us that when we get Polarstern to the Lomonosov Ridge we are going for it. We have 2 days, 1 day each way. Morale up tremendously.

1930-2330 Night Watch. Position 89 ^o 06.0' N Latitude, 125 ^o 20.1' E longitude. Wind from 220 ^o true at 8 knots. The wind birds have been frozen off and on for the last few days. We are using a handheld anemometer instead. Barometer 29.95 inches and steady. Temperature 23 degrees Farenheit with a low overcast and 8 - 10 NM visibility. 8/10's multi year floe ice 6 feet thick. We had just taken Polarstern to the Lomonosov at the end of the previous watch. We were now headed North, trying to stay West of 130 ^o longitude due to ice conditions. Shortly into my watch we (my break in and I) took a narrow lead between two floes under pressure and got stuck. After we backed and rammed once the Captain ordered a third engine and came up to the aloft conn to break us out. Lesson learned about pressure and absence of relief (open water for ice to move into after you break it). At this point Polarstern left the Lomonosov and started up our track after us. We advised her to go around the floes that pinched us and pick up our track on their North side. They did so, and stayed in our track for the rest of the watch. We managed the remainder of our watch on 2 engines. We stuck once more, but were able to break through on the 3rd ram. When OPS relieved us at 2330 we were at 89 ^o 19.5' N, a gain of 12.5 miles for the watch. At this rate we should get to the Pole by mid-day tomorrow. The ice looks the same, but it feels harder. I had difficulty falling asleep, partially anticipation, partially noise. My children will be thrilled if we get to the Pole.

BMC Glenn Woodbury

September 6

9AM Approaching the Pole

It is foggy outside with low visibility. Light snow is falling. It is 28 degrees.

The ship was bustling in early morning, as everyone was awake to be sure not to miss the magic moment of arrival at the top of the world. Polarstern is following Healy through the ice, so the two ships will arrive one after the other. Scientists and Coast Guard are huddling over the displays of our latitude and longitude. 89 ^o, 58' two miles and less than one hour to go.

There are some practical steps that need to be taken as the Pole was approached. The Seabeam mapping system has to be shut off because it uses a Mercator map projection, and the longitude blows up at the pole, where all longitudes converge to a single point. Other computers that use real-time navigation are also shutting down to avoid software crashes. The gyros on the bridge are starting to go nuts and spin in circles.

There are other preparations as well. We will lower a core at the Pole to get samples of the sediment from the top of the world. That provides the opportunity to send things to the bottom of the Arctic Ocean at the Pole, and imaginations have been working. Some chocolate is being lowered for Peter Michael, who has a weakness for chocolate. The mess has made hundreds of styrofoam cups available, and they are all being decorated. Styrofoam cups compress under high pressure. When they are lowered to the bottom of the ocean, they reduce in size to be about the size of thimbles. Decorations painted on the cups then come out miniaturized. Almost everyone on board is madly decorating cups for themselves or their loved ones on shore, as mementos of the event.

There is much to savor in this event, because the North Pole is a special place. At the North Pole—You occupy all longitudes at once. You are all time zones at once, so your experience is timeless. You are the same time as everyone else on the planet.

You are immobile, or in any case moving very, very slowly, as all the other planetary residents move at thousands of miles an hour around and beneath you.

You are in more than one day at once, since you are on both sides of the international dateline.

Satellite navigation systems go nuts, so in a way it is the place where you know where you are by not being able to know where you are.

If you stand up straight, you are truly aligned with the earth's axis.

There is only one day and one night in a year, so a hundred year-old person would be only one hundred days old.

All directions are south, so to go anywhere else on earth you have only one way to go!

September 7

North Pole Remembered

Healy and Polarstern arrived at the North Pole at 1030 GMT on September 6th. Both ships "docked" a short distance from the pole against a large ice flow, in order to permit the scientists and crews to walk the short distance to the Pole. Personnel from both ships gathered on the ice, exchanged greetings, and began numerous activities. The Healy put a large striped post at the location of the Pole and hoisted an American flag. Polarstern also put a large pole in the ice with both US and German flags. Polarstern had reporters on board, and the reporters took pictures of Captains and Chief Scientists, and did some interviews. The Polarstern had prepared a barbeque for everyone to eat lunch. Despite the gloomy weatherþovercast, foggy, below freezing and windyþthe atmosphere was festive. Healy lowered the core (and styrofoam cups) over the fantail and successfully recovered sediment from 90 degrees N.

One of the strange aspects of arriving at the Pole is that it is not possible to stay there. There are no monuments or signs of any previous visitors, and there cannot be. The ice drifts at a speed of a couple of knots, which is about 200 feet per minute. That means that to stay exactly at the Pole, it would be necessary to walk at normal speed over the ice in the exact same direction as the ice drifts. Since navigational aids do not work well at the Pole, this is impossible. Therefore while we arrived very near the Pole, no one could be certain of the exact spot in the way one is sure of a benchmark or a street corner. By the time the ships had been docked "at the Pole" for a couple of hours, we were in fact a few miles away from the site.

One of the crew members of the Healy brought out his bicycle, and successfully rode on the ice around the Pole. Divers from the Healy took advantage of the opportunity of being on the ice to get in some diving practice, and did some Scuba diving. This gave others the idea of jumping into the 29 degree water with wearing only a swimsuitþto become ultimate members of the "Polar Bear Club." People can survive only for a few minutes in water at this temperature, so jumping in could be risky, and required the Captain's permission. He said he would allow it provided each person had a line tied to them, and was pulled out of the water immediately. About twenty people from the Healy then proceeded to jump in the water. All were highly enthusiastic upon entering, and suitably chilled upon exiting! The only causalities were some scraped shins and knees from climbing out of the water over the sharp ice.

Captain Visneski of the Healy was concerned about the weather, and decided that he did not want the Healy to stay long at the Pole. Therefore all personnel were ordered to return to the ship only three hours after arriving at the Pole. As the Healy steamed south, the Polarstern scientists were playing soccer on the ice. They remained many more hours, with an open bar, soccer, and dancing.

After we were underway, everyone hovered over their huge pile of styrofoam cups to find their ownþand many of them looked very much alike. Pictures and video footage were compared. We were all thankful for the two to three day transit to the south so that we could recover and prepare for the next major scientific push.

All the scientists were given today off, as a "vacation" (one day without work out of 66!). The main science lab was empty all day long, as people caught up on sleep, watched movies, read books, and socialized.

September 8-9

Back to the Gakkel Ridge

The transit back to the Gakkel Ridge was uneventful, as the Healy capably broke its way through the ice. Ice conditions were a bit heavier than previously, and several times we had to back and ram. On the evening of the 9th we will arrive at 85E, which is the easternmost point that will be studying during this expedition. This area is one of our prime targets.

Before the cruise began, we expected to have difficulty finding fresh volcanic rocks along the Gakkel Ridge. Little or no hydrothermal activity was expected. But we had hope when we finally got to 85E we might find both fresh rocks and hot water. This hope was based on some exciting results published this year by Margo Edwards and co-workers (Nature 409 15 Feb 2001 808-812). This team was involved in an earlier survey of the Gakkel Ridge using the US nuclear submarine Hawkbill. One of the interesting results of this study was that there were very hard rocks in the center of the rift valley at 85E, surrounded by soft sediment. (The hard rocks give a strong reflection to sonar waves while the soft sediments do not). Volcanic rocks are hard, so one possibility was that there was a young volcano in this region. This idea was supported by an earthquake swarm that was detected by seismometers worldwide. These particular earthquakes were similar to those that accompany a voolcanic eruption, and were located very near the proposed volcano. An active volcano should have very fresh, glassy volcanic rocks, and associated deep sea hot springs—just what we hoped to recover. Therefore this site appeared to be our most promising target when we left Tromso six weeks ago.

Now our perspective is quite different, since we have found so much hydrothermal activity and so many fresh volcanic rocks. But this region remains special, because it is the slowest spreading part of the ridge that we will investigate. In fact it is the slowest spreading region ever explored! As spreading slows, volcanism slows also. Will this region be as fresh as the other active volcanic regions we found further to the west?

We are well rested after the trip to the Pole, and look forward to a new round of intense operations. Polarstern is supposed to join us in 24-48 hours, at which point we are to have finished our sampling and plan to carry out a seismic survey in this region.

Saturday 08 September 2001.
Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

After my pre-watch round our AMTC borrowed a baseball bat, a large plastic maul and a few of our deckies to break ice on the after end of the flight deck. There's enough heat leakage from the computer lab and after conning station to keep most of the flight deck melted off. But the overhang and the aft end still freezes and collects snow and ice.

Fore Noon Watch, 0730 - 1130. Position 87 ^o32.9' N Latitude, 088 ^o 51.1' E longitude. wind from 310 ^o true at 6 knots. Barometer 30.14 inches and steady. Temperature 31 ^o F. Visibility 10 NM under broken stratus clouds. 8/10's multi year floe ice 5 feet thick. Fairly good going through moderate ice. No large leads, but lots of broken stuff between polynyas. 0904 Turned to port to bring the wind across the deck and stopped between 2 floes and set flight quarters condition one in position 87 ^o 26.2' N Latitude, 088 ^o 47.2' E longitude. 0929 Coast Guard Helo 6515 (Bat 1-5) airborne for ice reconn. 0935 Resumed our Southerly course for the Gakkel Ridge. At 1020 turned to starboard to bring the wind across the deck and stopped in a triangular polynya between 3 floes to receive Polarstern's helicopter, Polar Heli 1. 1033 Polar Heli 1 on deck disembarking 2 passengers. 1035 Polar Heli 1 airborne. 1036 Polar Heli 1 landed on floe 100 yards to starboard of Healy. 1040 Helo shut down and crew out on floe playing tic-tac-toe in the snow. 1107 Bat 1-5 in sight to South. 1111 Bat 1-5 safely recovered on deck. 1130 Bat 1-5's rotors folded and aircraft rolled into the hangar, set flight quarters condition one. 1140 Polar Heli 1 on deck. 1225 Set flight quarters condition one. 1235 Polar Heli 1 airborne enroute to Polarstern, leaving 2 science party passengers on board Healy.

In the afternoon there was a cloud bank close on our starboard, to the Northwest with the sun just on the edge of it. Off to the other side, the sun was shining on the ice and we were still in the shade. For a few minutes after 1400 we were in the sun, then the cloud bank moved South again and the fog returned.

The 1st Class Petty Officers made Saturday Night Morale dinner. Shrimp boil a la Bubba Gump (TM), with all the fixin's. I believe I had enough shrimp. I spent the remainder of my evening studying County requirements for our house plans.

BMC Glenn Woodbury

1130 - 1530 Sunday 09 September 2001.
Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

Noon Watch. Position 85 ^o 59.7' N Latitude, 086 ^o 02.1' E longitude. Wind from 320 ^o true at 11 knots. Barometer 30.07 inches and steady. Temperature 26 ^o F. Visibility 6 NM under a low stratus overcast. Broken multi year floe ice 6 feet thick. Proceeding South, back to the Gakkel. Moderate ice, no big leads, but lots of broken floes between polynyas, some large floes to go around. Had to back and ram twice on this watch. Made it through on the first ram both times. Increasingly foggy towards evening.

A slow day, no e-mail again, problems with satellite acquisition. We are too far East for our usual satellite (F-1), and too far North for the other (F-3). At 2000 I attended a talk by Dr. Goldstein on the age of the earth and our solar system, and the various methods used throughout history to estimate those ages. I hope that in a century, or a decade, the few assumptions we make now don't appear as ridiculous as the previous millennium's assumptions do to us. Still, our current assumption is just that radioactive decay rates have remained constant over the last 4 1/2 billion years; which does not seem unreasonable to me.

BMC Glenn Woodbury

September 10

Dredging—Wow!!!

Because the earlier bathymetric data collected by submarine were poorly navigated, we carried out a brief multibeam survey when we first arrived on site, to make our own map. The earlier data had suggested one volcanic mound in the middle of the rift valley. Instead, we found a large number of cones, separated in the middle by a long, narrow valley with a saddle point in the middle. This is a typical morphology of spreading centers, and confirmed that we must be dealing with a young volcanic feature. There were lots of features to dredge--it would be hard to choose. Where might the youngest volcanism be?

Our first dredge was located on one of the volcanic cones. The dredge had many "bites" and the bottom appeared to be very hard and reflective, so we were hopeful The MAPR came off the wire first, and Hedy Edmonds eagerly carried it into the lab to download the data**. Then the dredge came on board, and it was full of fresh basalts with glistening glassy surfaces. The basalts were clearly more than one year old, but they were as fresh as anything else we had dredged further west along the ridge.

Peter Michael content with five dredges and the big hydrothermal plume

As the rocks were being laid out on the tables in the lab, Hedy's voice cried out above the normal lab hub-bub. "Wow!!! What a plume!!!". This was the biggest hydrothermal plume we had seen anywhere. There were big anomalies in both temperature and turbidity of the water, and the plume was one thousand meters thick. This might be the largest plume every seen in the Atlantic. We all charged over to look at the data, and realized that our science plans for this region would become focussed by this new discovery. Since Polarstern has a TV Grab and a deep-towed camera system, we thought about how to constrain the location of the plume, so that we might be able to photograph the vents, and, most importantly, the animals that populate them. Exciting times!!

**. (Every dredge we do has the MAPR tool attached to the wire some 250 meters above the dredge. The "Miniature Autonomous Plume Recorder" was developed by Ed Baker at NOAA in order to allow sampling cruises to obtain water column data routinely. The MAPR measures the temperature and turbidity of the water column. Where there are hydrothermal plumes, there are always turbidity anomalies (like smoke from a smokestack) and sometimes temperature anomalies as well. The MAPR is our prime tool for hydrothermal prospecting.)

Note: this personal log does not express the views of the Command or of the United States Coast Guard.

Still foggy this morning, and Polarstern is 90 NM distant. If the weather clears and they are closer we plan to fly off their visiting scientists. Our telecommunications Chief (TCC) told us this morning that we will have to go further South or West to contact one or the other of our communications satellites. Since we are working the Northeast end of the Gakkel Ridge, this could continue for a few days or a week. This is *not* a morale booster. We may have to go up on High Frequency Data Link (HFDL), in which case we will not have the capacity to transmit pictures. As a precaution, I am leaving them off until sat