Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
built to facilitate the survey of the Siberian coast by the Russian Arctic Ocean
Hydrographic Expedition during 1910-1915. In 1913, the surprising discovery was
made of the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago, which was not mapped until 1930-1932
by G.A. Ushakov (Vaughan,
1999
). In the 1920s, following the Russian Bolshevik
Revolution, the Kara Sea began to be exploited by cargo ships supported by ice-
breakers. This accelerated in 1932 after the formation of the Northern Sea Route
Directorate, which also took over administration of the Russian Arctic islands and
the Asiatic part of the Soviet Union north of 62°N (Gakkel and Chernenko,
1959
;
Belov,
1969
; Armstrong,
1952
,
1995
).
1.2
The Beginning of Systematic Observations
The modern basis of Arctic science, and meteorology in particular, was the outcome
of Karl Weypricht's suggestion for an International Polar Expedition. Planning
began at a conference in Hamburg in 1879, with eleven nations pledging support.
Weyprecht died in 1881, but the First International Polar Year (IPY) was mounted in
1882-1883. Barr (
1985
) provides a detailed account of the various national expedi-
tions.
Figure 1.3
shows the distribution of the twelve principal stations established
in the North Polar Region. Unfortunately, the Dutch expedition bound for Dikson
at the mouth of the Yenisey River became beset by ice in the Kara Sea. An auxiliary
program of observations, supervised by the physicist K.R. Koch (
1891
) was carried
out at six Moravian Mission stations along the Labrador coast. Important contribu-
tions to polar science were made during the IPY (e.g. Dawson,
1886
; von Neumayer
and Boergen,
1886
), but the widely spaced stations made it hard to use the data for
meteorological studies. Moreover, the drama of Adolphus Greely's tragic expedi-
tion to Lady Franklin Bay, Ellesmere Island, and his expedition's “farthest north”
(83.40°N on the North Greenland coast) tended to overshadow the IPY's scien-
tific achievements. After relief ships had failed to reach his camp at Ft. Conger,
Greely followed strict orders to retreat down the coast. Winter overtook his party.
Of twenty-six men, only seven (including Greely) lived to see the relief ship in June
1884. Some of the meteorological records nevertheless survived (Greely,
1896
).
The drift of the Norwegian vessel
Fram
across the Arctic Ocean from the New
Siberian Islands to Spitzbergen was a bold new direction in Arctic exploration. The
discovery on the coasts of Greenland of wreckage from the
Jeanette
and finds of
Siberian driftwood, gave Fridtjof Nansen (
Figure 1.4
) the idea of utilizing the drift
of the
Fram
. Despite widespread criticism by leading polar explorers, his views
were vindicated and the successful voyage represented a major advance in knowl-
edge of ice motion and Arctic Ocean circulation. Instead of being crushed, the spe-
cially designed vessel was lifted up by the ice and, in this way, drifted with the
ice for most of its journey, September 1893 through August 1896 (Nansen,
1898
).
Mohn (
1905
) published the meteorological results of the expedition, and these data
are now included on a CD-ROM (Arctic Climatology Project,
2000
). Nansen and
H. Johansen left the ship on March 14, 1895 and traveled over the ice to 86°14' N
