The count down has started!

• 7 days until many of the HACON cruise participants meet in Longyearbyen!
• 9 days until we sail on board R/V Kronprins Haakong to the Gakkel Ridge!

The way to Aurora. Photo: C. German, WHOI.

Our team of 37 geologists, geochemists, physical oceanographers, micropaleontologists, microbiologists, ecologists, engineers and NASA astrobiologists, together with a writer and a film maker from National Geographic are making the last preparations for this exciting cruise to explore and study the first deep hydrothermal vents discovered under Arctic ice.

NUI over the Aurora seamount in the discovery Polarstern cruise (2014). Photo: C. German, WHOI.

With us will be the newly upgraded Nereus Under Ice (NUI) hybrid ROV/AUV from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. NUI will be our main equipment to survey the Aurora vent field. We cannot wait to find out what wonders may await us!

Follow us here for updates on the cruise and our discoveries!