Arctic Ocean probe to predict ice age




"The whole of the deep Arctic Ocean remains unexplored at depth and all of its scientific wonders remain unknown," said Andy Kingdon, one of the British team involved in the international expedition.


"All the climate models you've ever seen are based on assumptions not real data," Mr Kingdon said.

Unpredictable winds, thick fog and shifting ice floes have made it almost impossible for drilling boats to operate in the Arctic; the deepest sediment core extracted so far is from 16 metres.

The project will use three icebreakers, one of which has been converted to drill with a 34-metre derrick.

"But we can't just park in the ice and say we're here, let's drill," said Alister Skinner, the operations manager. "We need the other two icebreakers just to give the drilling vessel a chance of staying on station."

The two escort ships will use helicopters and global satellite tracking systems dropped on to icebergs to aim at, and break up, drifting ice floes, protecting the drilling vessel.

"It's a very big ship but there's no way it can withstand a hit from an iceberg and keep drilling," Mr Skinner said.

Stationed 155 miles from the North Pole, the drilling ship will use computer-controlled propellors to stay in position for the 25 days it needs to complete the extraction of more than 100 separate 4.5-metre slugs of sediment. It will need to sink its pipe through 800 metres of water and then 500 metres into the peak of the ridge, which rises about 3,000 metres from the seabed.

The sediment was laid down at a rate of about a centimetre every thousand years, trapping the remains of millions of microscopic sea creatures. The relative abundance of these microfossils at various times is a reliable way to investigate the Earth's climate history.

The cores are expected to reveal a swing from a warm hothouse world to the present chillier era characterised by ice ages.

Geological evidence from about 45-55m years ago, such as alligator fossils from the Canadian Arctic, suggest that the Arctic was once warm and ice free.