Laura Nielsen for Frontier Scientists Deep sea oceans, once believed lifeless, teem with an astounding biodiversity. Where once we knew only speculation and fishermen’s tales, we now have a body of knowledge increasing with data from remotely operated underwater vehicles (ROVs) and human-occupied submersibles like James Cameron’s Vertical Torpedo. The deep ocean, the last unexplored terrestrial […]
By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We have now bid farewell to the Chukchi Sea and are in the northern Bering, working north of Saint Lawrence Island. Most fantastically, the ice is coming with us! Winds have been from the north, bringing cold air south and also blowing the ice south so […]
By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 We are heading south towards Bering Strait and the Bering Sea beyond. As we go, we are moving through young ice, with smallish pancakes ahead of the ship. The ice lamps illuminate the pancakes. The ship rumbles as she plows through the loose pancakes, with a […]
By Carin Ashjian for The Arctic Winter Cruise 2011 Today the sun did not rise. We have come so far north that we have reached a latitude where the sun did not come above the horizon on this winter day, where night lasted for 24 hours. We were treated instead to a few hours […]