RV Kronprins Haakon Calypso Coring cruise 2019

Braving the stormy seas

All photos and text by Mariana Esteves.

Blog originally posted on the CAGE website.

After a nine hour transit on our third day of cruise, we finally reached the first station in the Fram Strait. Unfortunately, we were put on a weather hold until further notice as high winds and large waves prevented us from initiating our work. The storm remained for the majority of the day, allowing for some dramatic pictures to be taken from the observation deck as the waves crashed against the bow (front section of the ship) and reached the helideck on deck 6! The weather hold lasted for the majority of the day and for many, even the most able seaman on-board, this was a difficult time to be on a ship as they try to get used to the motion of the ship during the storm.

Thankfully, the RV Kronprins Haakon is very stable even when passing rough seas, making it very comfortable for those on-board carrying out their day-to-day activities. Which on this day included the final preparations of the equipment, laboratories and procedures that we would undertaken once the cores arrived on deck. In addition to this, we were able to enjoy the facilities on-board the RV Kronprins Haakon, such as the observation deck, gym, library, ping-pong table, and day room. The discovery of the ping-pong table was a particular highlight for some during the transit period!

Testing the ping-pong table during the transit to the first station.

Later this evening, the weather cleared up enough for us to begin our work (and get an amazing view of Svalbard). First we deployed a CTD (oceanography instrument used to measure conductivity, temperature and pressure of seawater) to collect water samples from the 900m of water column, before deploying the piezometer (an instrument used to measure ground pressure). Following this we will prepare the multi-corer and giant calypso corer.

Nabil Sultan, Pierre Guyavarch, and Mickael Rudeaut from Ifremer discussing with the engineers and technicians on board during the retrieval of the piezometer.

RV Kronprins Haakon Calypso Coring cruise 2019

Take the tour: Research Vessel Kronprins Haakon

All photos and text by Mariana Esteves.

Blog originially posted on the CAGE website.

On the 18th October, there was a sense of excitement in the air as scientists from CAGE, UiT, NGU and numerous other institutes arrived to Longyearbyen, Svalbard, ready for their next exciting adventure. A three-week research cruise to Western and Northern Svalbard, on-board the new Norwegian icebreaker, RV Kronprins Haakon.

Breath taking view from the observation deck of Research Vessel Kronprins Haakon.

The RV Kronprins Haakon (KPH), built to operate in challenging ice conditions is fully equipped with the very latest high-tech equipment, enabling complex studies to be undertaken. The cruise will carry out important research for multiple projects such as, Tromsø Research Foundation funded SEAMSTRESS, and ERC funded AGENSI. Over the next few weeks we will be posting the progress of the cruise.

Safety briefing by the chief officer and first mate. It may look funny, but a survival suite is good to have.

On the sleepy morning of the 19th October, scientists from all around the world, many of whom are sailing on-board the KPH for the first time, eagerly boarded the vessel ready for the expedition. We started the day with a scientific meeting by the chief scientist, Dr. Jochen Knies, who introduced us to the ship and the day’s activities, which primarily included the preparation of the equipment and procedures that will be undertaken throughout the expedition. Following this, the chief officer and first mate gave us a safety briefing and quick tour of the ship.

The KPH has 9 decks, all of which have been assigned a ‘theme’, ranging from micro- and macro-organisms in the lower decks, to marine and terrestrial mammals in the central decks, to birds and northern lights in the upper decks. Every door has either a picture of an animal, or a place name, making it very interesting to walk around and see how many you can recognise.

Euphausia superba (Antarctic Krill) on a door on the 3rd deck is a species of krill found in the Antarctic waters of the Southern Ocean

The laboratories where the marine sediment cores and samples collected will be examined is located on the 3rd deck, which is the same floor where there is a moon pool (A moon pool on a marine research vessel is an opening in the floor or base of the hull giving access to the water below, allowing technicians or researchers to lower tools and instruments into the sea).  Here, the main drilling and water sampling operations take place. Hundreds of samples will pass through the moon pool during these three weeks, ready for further investigations at the scientists home institutes. The laboratories are fully equipped for high quality research and sample processing.

Dr. Renata Lucchi giving us a tour of the brand new educational laboratory on-board. The ship was fully operational and delivered to the Norwegian research institutions in 2018.

Located on the 5th deck is the mess hall where we can enjoy delicious meals and snacks throughout the day. In addition, the day room where scientists can meet, discuss and have a warm drink, is located here.

Scientists enjoying their break with some nice discussions, warm drinks and view of the port in Lonyearbyen!

The upper decks have a combination of both living and work spaces, with the instrument room where the geophysical data will be collected and processed is located on deck 7. The bridge and control room is located in deck 8 and on deck 9 is the observation deck where scientists can meet and relax, while watching the land- and seascapes go by.

Instrument room ready to go!

RV Kronprins Haakon Calypso Coring cruise 2019

Ready, set, go! Next stop – Vestnesa Ridge in the Fram Strait

All photos and text by Mariana Esteves.

Blog originally posted on CAGE website.

The coring equipment on deck. To the left you have the steel core barrels for the giant calypso corer, and to the right you have the core liners that will be placed inside the corer and used for the collection of the marine sediment cores.

The final preparations for the core flow – which is a procedure we will undertake when the long cores of ocean floor sediments arrive on deck – and sampling strategies were completed on the morning of Sunday 20th October.  Equipment in the laboratories and in the hangar were set up ready for arrival to the first station. This involved a lot of creative thinking and planning to make sure that the core flow would be efficient once the first sediment core arrived on-board later this evening.

Preparations in the lab included setting up the equipment, and labelling thousands of vials and sample bags. Here we see Renata Lucchi, Simone Sauer, Nessim Douss and Przemyslaw Domel hard at work getting everything ready.

By lunch time, we set off from Longyearbyen and sailed towards the center of Isfjorden to test the new calypso corer deployment system. These tests are important to ensure that the equipment will work once we get to our first sites. By 3pm (cake break time!!), the deployment instrument tests are completed and we set sail towards Vestnesa Ridge, Fram Strait, where we will arrive after 9 hours of sailing. There is a lot of excitement on board now that everything is in place and ready to go! Just a few more hours to go before we arrive at the first station and begin our shifts.

Martin Klug and Stig Monsen preparing the area where the cores will be washed, labelled and cut into 1m sections, preliminary samples taken, all prior to the cores being stored for future analyses.