As the cruise came to a close, the USGS Ocean Acidification team packed up the lab for transport back to Florida. The equipment had to be placed on pallets, tightly wrapped, and secured to avoid any damage during travel. The … Continue reading →

A dredge is a tool used by marine scientists to take samples of rocks and sediment from the ocean floor. During the course of our cruise, five different locations were dredged for rocks- Not only rocks came up in the … Continue reading →

Calcareous ooze covers approximately 48% of deep ocean basins (Garrison, 2012).  It primarily consists of calcareous planktonic organisms such as foraminifera, pteropods, and coccolithophores in a matrix of clay and silt. Calcareous ooze is named for the calcium carbonate rich … Continue reading →

The Inuit or Inupiat are the native peoples of the Arctic Circle that live from Greenland, throughout Canada to Alaska.  Mabel Smith is an Inuit from Barrow, Alaska. On the Healy,  she is serving as a community observer.  According to the … Continue reading →

The polar oceans stretching around our planet’s poles are permanently or temporarily covered with sea-ice. Because seawater has a higher salinity compared to freshwater, its freezing only begins when water temperature is approximately -3 to -4ºC (minus 3ºC to minus … Continue reading →

The USCGC Healy is the largest non-nuclear ice breaker in the world.  It can break ice as thick at 4 1/2 feet continuously at a speed of three knots.  According to the Healy’s website, the ship can accommodate up to … Continue reading →

This polar bear was sighted on Saturday, September 15th from the Healy. The polar bear was observed having trouble walking on the thin ice.  The bear’s paws were breaking through the ice,  so it got on it’s belly, distributed the … Continue reading →

 In 1957, the first photos of the Arctic Ocean bottom were taken from a scientific outpost, Drifting Station Alpha, and were published by Hunkins et.al. in 1960.  Dr. John Hall was on another drifting scientific station, T-3 (also known as Fletcher’s Ice … Continue reading →

The rosette is one of the the water sampling devices used by the USGS Ocean Acidification Research team. It is a set of 24 sampling bottles called Niskin bottles that are connected to a frame that is lowered to the … Continue reading →

In addition to our USGS Ocean Acidification Research Team, there are several other scientific teams and individual scientists currently conducting research on the Healy. One such scientist is Dr. Pablo Clemente-Colon who is currently the Chief Scientist of the National … Continue reading →

Hydrostatic pressure increases with depth in the ocean. At sea level, the pressure is 1 bar or 14.7 pounds per square inch (PSI).  With depth, the pressure increases by about 1 bar per 10 meters. Human bodies are not built … Continue reading →

Today a polar bear was sighted about a mile away from the USCGC Healy. The bear was spotted when the Healy was traveling through thicker ice at approximately 82°40’ 46” N Latitude and 174°34’ 57” W Longitude.  According to the U.S. Fish … Continue reading →

The team stayed overnight in quonset huts at the Barrow Arctic Science Consortium (BASC).  Quonset huts are arched, lightweight buildings that are usually made of galvanized steel.  The huts proved to be very comfortable accommodations including a large living room, … Continue reading →