Geophysical and geological exploration in the Arctic Ocean region: Summary of the most important expeditions and surveys that have contributed to geophysical and geological knowledge of the Arctic Ocean

Abstract

Phipps' expedition into the fringe of the Eurasia Basin in 1773 marked the beginning of Arctic Ocean research in the modern sense, while a century later Nansen's Fram drifted across the Eurasia Basin. The early period of sailing ships and dog-sledding ended with Stefansson's Canadian Arctic Expedition during World War I. Papanin's ice drift from the North Pole into the Greenland Sea, in 1937, marked the beginning of modern exploration in which aircraft, icebreakers and submarines became the standard means of transportation. After World War II the Soviets introduced their North and North Pole Series operations of drifting ice stations which are still ongoing today. During the fifties, sixties and early seventies the U.S. carried out a program of airborne surveys into the Canada Basin, manned a number of drifting ice stations, and released bathymetric data from their early nuclear submarine expeditions. The Canadian Polar Continental Shelf Project, created in 1958, has supported 3000 research projects over a period of 30 years and thereby placed Canada among the leaders in Arctic Ocean research. The LOREX and Fram expeditions in 1979, followed by the CESAR expedition, the establishment of an ice island research station, and the cruises of the scientific research ships Ymer and Polarstern marked the beginning of a new era — one of unprecedented cooperation between institutions and nations, and between scientific disciplines. It reflects an advance in understanding: the Arctic Ocean is being viewed in a global setting in which the interaction of physical, chemical and biological processes regulates the total earth system.