Celebrating Christmas at the North Pole without Claus – Aftenposten

chalet located so near the North Pole one can get and is very different from other homes. They are about a hovercraft, where Professor Yngve Kristoffersen and his associate Audun Tholfsen has already spent 14 weeks, and where they should be just over a year to. Despite Claus normally located directly next, the men are little concerned by Christmas.

– Beside it miss them home, there will probably a lot of work here also through Christmas day, says Kristoffersen, geologist for years has researched bedrock beneath the Arctic Ocean.

• Arctic or Arctic Sea covers an area of ​​10 million km². Average water depth is 1,300 meters, and the total sea area contains 12.4 million km³ of water.
• ice extent and thickness varies, but the amount of ice, according to scientists become increasingly smaller.
• hovercraft “Sabvabaa “was placed on ice for approximately 89 degrees north and has operated at a distance equal Oslo Steinkjer since September 1st. Now they will soon turn south towards the Fram Strait.
• The expedition “FRAM 2014/15» performs commissioned by including Nansen Center, University of Bergen and the oil company Lundin.
• Yngve Kristoffersen (73 ) is from Alta, professor of geology and has worked for many years for the University of Bergen. He has researched extensively on the Arctic and Antarctic, and are keen to use hovercraft as appropriate, inexpensive and environmentally friendly research platform.
• Audun Tholfsen (42) is from Longyearbyen and has experience of many expeditions to the north. He went in 2012 skiing and paddled kayak from the North Pole to Longyearbyen, 1600 kilometers on 72 days. Tholfsen is also a photographer and can repair most of it.

Now conducts 73-year-old an old dream of working from a floating platform that slowly drifts across the geology world knows at least about.

– We hope to extract further 100 million years old samples, he told when Aftenposten wrote about the start in September.

Although much water separates them from the seabed, they will pick up mineral specimens from both bottom and further down into the sediments. They also collect seismic data, including oil companies would like to investigate further. And they measure air temperature and water temperature at various depths. They check salinity, ice, ice operations and much, much more. Different sensors collect data and a number of universities and institutions have placed order with desire.

Some Christmas is it anyway aboard “Sabvabaa” which vessel units. The name comes from the Inuit language and means “driver slowly past.”

– The idea of ​​family, children and grandchildren, making it especially being right here in the Christmas weekend. But we can take a phone, we can exchange mail, and we get a series of updates and newsletters from colleagues, other friends and families, says Kristoffersen.

Watch video: Here see “Sabvabaa” to land and water

Celebrated birthday with salt fish

– We have not dealt with us Christmas tree or dark suit, he smiles. But on Christmas Eve, they had spareribs and cloudberries for dessert. Kristoffersen is from Finnmark and picked berries themselves. Christmas Eve he had birthday and wanted lightly salted cod on the menu. It proved arrange.

Some decorations and candles they also found forward before Christmas peace descended. And peace have been between hard work with scientific equipment.

Outside it has already been julestemning in many weeks. The sun disappeared below the horizon early, and heaven had beautiful colors before it went over the very black. The men had nice visit of a polar fox, who ate blood sausage benevolent they offered him. They question what rascal would found food at the North Pole if he had not met on two researchers in a hovercraft.

They are prepared for curious polar bear on long walking can come back, but has so far not seen the polar bear.

Atom submarine stuck drop by

Other visits they also had. A few weeks side appeared light 4-5 kilometers away on the ice, and their first impulse was that finally they saw a UFO. But it was not. Tholfsen and Kristoffersen took on well with clothes and strolled toward the light. The goal was a coffee visit.

Soon after they saw that it was a submarine, there were men in the tower and out on the ice. When they were a hundred yards away, disappeared craft down among the ice floes, and since they have not seen it.

– We have since learned that it was the Russian nuclear submarine “Orenburg” who was visiting. It belongs to Delta class and used including deepwater research. It has probably been our seismic and other sounds that lured it to take a closer look, says Kristoffersen.

Isolated in 18 months

hovercraft, the two men, a lot of research equipment and about four tons of food, clothing and fuel was placed on a large floe 1 September this year. The German forskningsisbryteren “Polarstern” brought them into an exciting area where it has previously been difficult to engage in science. Tholfsen and Kristoffersen resigned after performing contract research for the Germans for several weeks. Then they were abandoned at approximately 89 degrees north.

The purpose of the expedition, which has been named “FRAM 2014/15,” is to follow ice operations in the Arctic Ocean, and then to come out in the open sea in the Fram Strait approximately 18 months after they were put out. Along the way they inter alia explore the geology of the seabed. It consists of steep mountains and vast plains which according Kristoffersen makes Alps and Finnmark Plateau to trifles.

But the thick layer of sediment covering much of the bedrock, and it is difficult to ret rieve rock samples. On a specific area know geologist that there has been a meteorite impact, and soils are blown away. Here one can find one hundred million years old geology, from the time the sea was ten degrees warmer. Such rock samples shall Tholfsen and Kristoffersen happily take home for further studies.

The researchers also filmed life on the seabed, one mile below them. Small fish swim back and forth, and smaller animals occur in soils.

Scientists were set on a large, solid ice floes and where they built their base around the vessel. But slick proved fickle. Three times they have had to break up and move and all the equipment. Floe has not only cracked in two, but in a hundred pieces. And then the ice floes collided with each other and made impassable root combined with open water.

Little rest

– We’ve had one day of rest since September 1st. The days have gone fast with a lot of work, mostly outdoors. The challenge of poor ice conditions we were aware of, but it has created more work than we were prepared. We have also done the scientific work and are happy with the results so far, says Kristoffersen.

But Santa has the words not seen.

– You’ve been cold down to minus 40, combined with strong winds give it a very low effective temperature. The ice in addition not to trust, have probably done that Nissen retreated south, smiling professor.

Read also:

Adam, Eve and Santa Claus has nothing in common

Why is it called the North Pole – in Oslo?

Watch video:

Santa Claus on diving

Published: 24.des. 2014 6:55 p.m.