Getting Underway

August 13, 2023 Posted by: JR Ancheta

We left Nome two days early to avoid a storm but we're officially on our way!

 

We left Nome at around 6:00 pm (AKST) Friday, August 4, 2023. This was two days earlier than our scheduled departure date due to weather. We sheltered from a storm at Port Clarence.

Science work was officially underway on Monday, August 7, 2023. The RV Sikuliaq crew did a CTD cast around 11:15 am to prepare for acoustic surveying in northeastern Norton Sound. The CTD measures conductivity (salinity), temperature and depth of the water column. It's important to find the sound velocity profile of the water column to calibrate the sonar’s accuracy. The technology we use is similar that used for fish finders, but more powerful. Instead of looking for fish, we're looking at sediment layers at the bottom and sub-bottom below the seafloor.

The day shift science team collects a sample from the vibracorer on RV Sikuliaq's back deck near Norton Sound around sunset just before midnight.

 

We hit the Bering Land Bridge on Tuesday, August 9, 2023! The day shift collected four cores, while the midnight shift collected seven from two locations. The longest core is 4.7m taken around 5 a.m. this morning.

We're looking to core a couple more sites near Nome at the northern part of the Norton Sound. We're hoping to cross a few more sites of interest that we could look at them from a different angle. Depending on what we find, we may collect more cores.

After that, we head out of Norton Sound and transit to St. Lawrence Island to begin Round 2 of coring. We'll be farther from the Alaskan coast. There are known channels, but we hope to find some lakes.