Research project IGV| The Pleistocena development of the permanent sea ice cover, shelf ice and ocean circulation
This project aims to decipher the Arctic Ocean evolution of sea ice, ice sheets, and ocean circulation in the Arctic Ocean that comprise key components of the climate system.
The project is built on an extensive geological, geophysical and oceanographic data set collected during the two icebreaker expeditions Healy-Oden Trans-Arctic Expedition (HOTRAX) 2005 and Lomonosov Ridge off Greenland (LOMROG) 2007.
Project description
These expeditions were organized and executed through a previous VR-project. From the central Arctic Ocean sediment cores were collected that provide strategic spatial coverage and unprecedented temporal resolution allowing, using a multi-proxy method approach, studies of the patterns of sea ice, ice sheet and ocean circulation over the last one million years. In addition to coring, LOMROG mapped previously unexplored areas north of Greenland using icebreaker Oden's newly installed multibeam bathymetric sonar and chirp subbottom profiler. These data reveal traces from huge icebergs that grounded on the sea floor in water depths deeper than 1000 m during past glacial times. In addition, the multibeam was used to acoustically image the water column; data that will be analyzed in collaboration with physical oceanographers for the pathways of intermediate and deep water north of Greenland. The project forms a part of the Arctic Palaeoclimate and its Extremes (APEX) scientific network involving more than 30 research projects with scientists from 15 European countries, Russia, Canada and USA.
Project members
Project managers
Martin Jakobsson
Professor of Marine geology and geophysics
