Icebreaker Oden makes landmark journey to isolated fjord in North Greenland
The 2024 GEOEO North of Greenland Expedition, organized by the Swedish Polar Research Secretariat aboard the icebreaker Oden, has made history as the first vessel to reach the remote Victoria Fjord in North Greenland. The expedition’s data will be contributed to The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, which aims to inspire a complete map of the ocean floor by 2030.
Setting sail from Thule, the northernmost deep-water port, the expedition focuses on assessing the Victoria Fjord region to understand how much and how quickly the North Greenland ice sheet could contribute to global sea-level rise. Despite facing multi-year sea ice and pressure ridges, the vessel succeeded in reaching the fjord with 40 researchers aboard from Sweden, the USA, Denmark, Australia and Switzerland.
Among the expedition’s leaders are professors Martin Jakobsson and Larry Mayer, co-heads of Seabed 2030’s Arctic and North Pacific Ocean Regional Center. Jakobsson and Mayer are leading the team’s geophysical mapping efforts, which aim to enhance understanding of this remote region and its relevance to global climate change and sea-level studies. The mission is expected to significantly advance knowledge about the Arctic, with far-reaching implications for climate research and environmental preservation.
Importance of exploring remote regions
Seabed 2030 project director Jamie McMichael-Phillips called the mapping of these uncharted waters a “remarkable achievement”, contributing significantly to the project’s broader goals of understanding the world’s oceans. “We are hugely grateful that the GEOEO team has included bathymetry within their wider research activities. Not only will this add valuable data to the definitive map of the ocean floor, but their work will undoubtedly highlight the critical importance of exploring these remote regions to better comprehend the challenges facing the planet.”
The GEOEO theme is organized around seven broad scientific goals, which will be addressed by several complementary work packages before, during and after the expedition. These are:
- unravelling the Late Glacial to Holocene history and dynamics of the North Greenland ice sheet;
- gaining new insights into the variability of the marine cryosphere in North Greenland and the adjacent Arctic Ocean;
- investigating the interaction between ecosystem composition, human activity and climate fluctuations;
- quantifying ecosystem productivity and nutrient levels in changing marine ecosystems north of Greenland;
- mapping remote ocean frontiers;
- mapping the presence of gas hydrates in marine sediments and gas in the water column and atmosphere;
- numerical modelling of the ice-ocean-atmosphere-geodynamic system.
All data collected and shared with the Seabed 2030 project will be included in the free and publicly available GEBCO global grid.
Geophysical mapping programme
The Swedish Polar Research Secretariat leases the icebreaker Oden from the Swedish Maritime Administration for use during the summer season. With backing from the Swedish Research Council, additional funders and researchers from Swedish universities, the Secretariat has developed Oden into one of the world’s premier platforms for conducting polar research.
A small US team is onboard, contributing to the geophysical mapping programme by monitoring Oden's acoustic systems in eight-hour shifts. These systems, including the multibeam echosounder, sub-bottom profiler and scientific echosounders, provide vital geospatial data. The multibeam echosounder maps the seafloor, aiding in navigation and tracking glacier movements, the sub-bottom profiler examines sediment history, and the echosounders monitor biological activity. The acoustic doppler current profiler measures deep currents, providing essential data to support the biological, oceanographic and geochemical work of other research teams.
For more information on this project, visit the expedition blog.
