On the morning of September 5th, the USCGC Healy and the U.S. GEOTRACES Arctic Expedition reached 90°N, making this the fourth visit to the North Pole for the Coast Guard, and the first visit for many of us on board.
Nearly everyone on board was awake for our arrival to the pole. Some of us went to watch the GPS hit 90°N in the computer labs, while others went to the bow to be the first to reach the highest latitude. After celebrating our arrival, we put a rosette in the water and began sampling the northernmost water masses on the planet (see About the Arctic Ocean).
Once we finished our water column sampling on the 6th, we moved to where the ice was thick enough to get out on and sample from, and also to take a brief “ice liberty” and formally celebrate our North Pole arrival by taking a proper group photo.
We were about to begin heading south, but we decided to stay a minute longer to meet up briefly with our German colleagues, along with their awesome DOC sampler. It has been an exciting long weekend for us! We are now on our way south, having crossed the Lomonosov Ridge and are back in the familiar Canadian Basin.
–Andrew Margolin
Andrew Margolin is pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Miami‘s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science in Marine and Atmospheric Chemistry in the Department of Ocean Sciences (OCE) as a National Science Foundation (NSF) Graduate Research Fellow.
