The Best Laid Schemes: A Nares Strait Adventure

• Main Author: Humfrey Melling
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The Oceanography Society 2011
• Subjects: Arctic Ocean; International Polar Year; IPY; Nares Strait; Oceanography; GC1-1581; Arctic; Canada; Greenland; Nares; Icebreaker; Nares strait
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/aeafa4b128e747fe9b163c604f019c11

In 2002, oceanographers began a study of Arctic freshwater export via Nares Strait (Münchow et al., 2006). This 550 km channel separating Greenland from Canada is possibly the longest narrow waterway on Earth. Surrounding ice-capped terrain rises above 2000 m. We used the US icebreaker Healy to install recording instruments on submerged moorings in summer in 2003, but planned their recovery in 2005 via an ice camp in spring, because the dangerous fast moving pack ice of summer makes ship-based recoveries difficult.