We completed science operations on the evening of September 12th after conducting a successful ROV dive and collecting several more gravity cores in the Western Mackenzie Trough and Yukon Shelf. Although this was a geosciences expedition, we made several observations of marine life as well. Topside, we have seen numerous species of birds, including …

Ned King To interpret what we see today both on land and at the seabed, we need to understand how the landscape was different in the past. When we say “past”, we mean on a geologic timeframe—specifically, about 10,000 to 20,000 years ago, when the climate was much colder and glaciers covered much of Canada. There have …

Lonny Lundsten and Michelle Côté on behalf of the science team Over the last few days we conducted three remotely operated vehicle (ROV) dives and two autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) surveys at areas of geologic interest on the eastern Mackenzie Shelf that are called pingo-like features (PLFs) and mud volcanoes. On the adjacent land of …

For over five decades, the geology under the Canadian Beaufort Sea on the eastern side of the Mackenzie Trough has been extensively explored for the potential to find oil and gas deposits. Thus, a wealth of data exists in this area, including: multichannel seismic data looking deep into the subsurface, large swaths of multibeam data …

Scott Dallimore and Stephen Wolfe As described in our August 30th blog entry, the 2017 Arctic field program also includes a terrestrial component with Scott Dallimore and Stephen Wolfe from the Geological Survey of Canada (GSC) examining the coastal geology of the northern Yukon. For Scott and Steve, the field program is a bit of …

A key objective of this research program is to improve our understanding of subsurface geology and permafrost and gas hydrate distribution. We hope to quantify the occurrence and release of fluid and methane gas at depth with an aim of understanding sediment instability, both landslide-type and fluid-related. The primary geophysical method used to asses this scientific question is marine reflection seismic, which involves transmitting controlled …

Scott Dallimore and Stephen Wolfe The Araon science program began immediately upon crossing the Canadian border with targeted multi-beam and sub-bottom mapping of an interesting trough feature that occurs on the Yukon shelf. After about 36 hours of transiting and science activities the ship arrived at Herschel Island to pick up three marine mammal observers …

August 26-30, 2017 Our 2017 Arctic Expedition kicked off with members of the three science teams from KOPRI, MBARI, and the GSC assembling in Barrow, Alaska, on August 26 and transferring, via helicopter, to the R/V Araon, which was anchored just offshore. Within two hours, and after many helicopter flights, all personnel and equipment were …