GEUS researchers 'inaugurate' Villum Research Station - Station Nord, North-East Greenland

Published 20-05-2015

Sea ice changes over the past centuries and millennia will be reconstructed from 37 sediment cores just retrieved from the sea bottom in the Wandel Sea area.

The two GEUS researchers Sofia Ribeiro and Niels Nørgaard-Pedersen were among the first team of scientists to do fieldwork based at the new Villum Research Station at Station Nord, in North-East Greenland.

They have just returned from a 3-week fieldwork campaign where they collected sediment cores from the sea bottom in the Wandel Sea area, with the main objective to reconstruct past sea ice changes in this region. This campaign was organized by the Arctic Science Partnership in collaboration with the Arctic Research Center at Aarhus University.

- The fjords in this area are basically uncharted land. We had to plan where to go based on only a few bathymetry points and radar satellite images of the sea ice character, says Sofia Ribeiro.

- Although we had to drill through up to 3m of sea ice to reach sea water, the campaign was a success and we retrieved 37 marine sediment cores, says Niels Nørgaard-Pedersen.

Sea ice changes over the past centuries and millennia will be reconstructed from these sediment records, in connection with Sofia Ribeiro's project funded by the Villum Foundation's Young Investigator Programme.
Researcher Sofia Ribeiro from GEUS handles a sediment core from the seabed in Wandelhavs area in North-East Greenland.

Contact:
Sofia Ribeiro, GEUS
Tlf.: +45 91 33 38 43
E-mail: sri@geus.dk

Niels Nørgaard-Pedersen, GEUS
Tlf.: +45 91 33 38 35
E-mail: nnp@geus.dk

Villum Research Station

Winter conditions at Villum Research Station - North Station in North-East Greenland 14th April 2015.
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Researchers from GEUS

Researchers from GEUS are working on the sea ice in North-East Greenland, where they have retrieved sediment cores from the seabed.
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Researcher Sofia Ribeiro from GEUS

Researcher Sofia Ribeiro from GEUS handles a sediment core from the seabed in Wandelhavs area in North-East Greenland.
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