HACON
Hot vents in an ice-covered ocean
Hot Vents in an Ice-Covered Ocean
Follow us to the Aurora vent field between 19 Sept to 16 Oct on board R/V Kronprins Haakon! Click on the blog for updates.
An international and multidisciplinary team of 36 scientists and engineers, with the assistance of the officers and crew of the vessel, will conduct the first full-scale multidisciplinary investigation of deep (4000 m) hydrothermal vents under permanent ice cover in the Arctic, investigating the Aurora vent field (82.5°N) in the Gakkel Ridge. These vent field was discovered in 2014 during the German AURORA cruise but only less than 1 min of video is available. The HACON cruise will study the Aurora vents with the ROV Nereus Under Ice (WHOI, with funding from NOAA-OE), the towed Ocean Floor Observation and Bathymetry System (AWI) and a series of other equipment.
Images: C. German, copyright WHOI; A. Purser, copyright AWI
HACON will unravel the geochemical and physical processes that shape the Aurora biological communities and assess the role played by the Gakkel Ridge in connectivity of chemosynthesis-based ecosystems between ocean basins. The project will provide empirical robust data of a pristine system prior to expected climate-change variations and increased human activities in the Arctic region.
About
PROJECT BACKGROUND Forty years after the discovery of hydrothermal vents, research into these unique habitats and their ecosystems is still in the exploratory phase. These recent discoveries have changed the way we understand life on Earth, have challenged knowledge of the origin of life…
Results
Moorings on the ice edge
21 September 2019 – 81°N The first days of the cruise have been dedicated to the recovery of moorings for colleagues at the Uni. Bergen and other research groups. The moorings have been collecting data for 1 year and many people are eager to…
Sea ice is startlingly captivating
23 September 2019 – 81°N On Saturday, we woke to the Kronprins Haakon smoothly parting a frozen ocean, a process that – from our cabin on deck three, just above the sea — sounded like an oversized spoon being pushed through a planetary-scale slushie. For…
Ready, steady, go!
19 September Today all the boxes and equipment were brought on board and the different teams were busy unpacking boxes and setting up labs. And finally, at 22:00 we said good bye to Longyearbyen! Before we start our HACON adventures exploring abyssal hydrothermal vents…
Getting ready for work under and on the ice!
The NUI team has been busy today, starting to get NUI ready for the cruise, both in the hangar where NUI will be based and in the control room. It is from the control room that NUI will be piloted. It is also from…
In Longyearbyen
Photo: arriving to Svalbard for the HACON cruise. Most of the HACON team is already in this amazing part of the world, preparing for the HACON cruise. The hybrid ROV/AUV NUI is by the R/V Kronprisn Haakon and the NUI team from WHOI have been…
