The Norwegian Sabvabaa hovercraft has begun a research mission from Svalbard to the North Pole. The Fram 2012 expedition is the first – and northernmost – polar expedition ever undertaken with such a vessel.
The Norwegian Petroleum Directorate (NPD) is a financial sponsor of the expedition. The participants in the Fram 2012 expedition are Professor Emeritus Yngve Kristoffersen (Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Centre and Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bergen) and student Gaute Hope (Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bergen).
“The expedition has measured the ice thickness from the ice edge to the area near the North Pole. The ice is exclusively ice from last year with a thickness between one and one and a half metres,” writes Yngve Kristoffersen in an email to the NPD.
In addition to measuring sea ice thickness, Sabvabaa will collect seismic data and take geological samples of the seabed.
The 12-metre long and six-metre wide Sabvabaa hovercraft was deployed from the Norbjørn freight vessel on the ice edge at 80 50’ north, 15 east, on Wednesday, 18 July.
“It’s a very special feeling to fly over the ice on a hovercraft, over bumps and through openings in pressure ridges. Effective progress north is six-seven knots when ice conditions are good, and four-five knots when the ice is broken up by multiple pressure ridges. Our progress is about one degree of latitude per day,” writes Kristoffersen.
About 30 nautical miles into the ice, the expedition encountered the Lance research vessel, where a group of biologists and young scientists from a total of 11 nations were carrying out biological sampling of fauna and flora in ice and water. The work is headed by researcher Stig Falk-Pedersen.
The Fram 2012 expedition’s preliminary goal is to proceed to 85 degrees north, where graduate student Gaute Hope will install a network of listening buoys to record earthquakes.
The hovercraft will remain at this position for about two weeks to listen for earthquakes until the Oden icebreaker arrives. The vessels will then continue north together to the work area for seabed surveys beyond the North Pole.
(NPD Press release)
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