Arrived on Site in Baffin Bay

After a 6-day transit from Iceland across the Arctic circle and into Baffin Bay, we have arrived on site offshore northwest Greenland and the ship is positioning itself across the first target site. At the same time the drillpipe is being put together. First, the thrusters have been lowered. These are large propellers that can move the ship sideways in addition to forward. During transit these propellers are raised up above the deck (see grey column in top picture). Once lowered, a computer controlled dynamic position system that works with GPS, is firing up the thrusters one by one to keep the ship in a stable position across the site. 

We were on a tour of the drill rig floor this morning, under the derrick, and we could see the pipe sitting there, ready to be put together into the drill string. The length of the pipe segments is checked for in manual measurements. Now that we are on site, the crew will put together an approximately 2 kilometer string of pipes to reach the seafloor beneath us. At the bottom of the pipe is the bottom-hole-assembly, or the BHA for short, which includes the drill bit that makes the hole in the seafloor. Here is a picture of the drill collars that rotate and get us into the seafloor.

Expedition video trailer

We are scheduled to take fuel tomorrow and to start our journey the day after. Expedition education and outreach officer Beth Doyle made this video trailer. Enjoy!

IODP Expedition 400 is about to begin!

International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP) Expedition 400 will depart for Baffin Bay this week. Today the science party is scheduled to move to the research vessel JOIDES Resolution in Reykjavik, Iceland. The objective of the expedition is to recover sediment cores from seven sites on the Northwest Greenland continental margin to obtain a paleo-archive of the behavior of the Greenland Ice Sheet during past warm periods. Melt of the Greenland Ice Sheet is currently contributing to sea-level rise worldwide and its behavior in the geological past will shed light on the end point of this melt in the future. Stayed tuned for more.