UH researchers reach North Pole aboard U.S. icebreaker Healy

USCGC HEALY (WAGB-20) north of Alaska" by U.S. Coast Guard/DoD - DoDMedia. Licensed under Public Domain via Commons .

U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, home-ported in Seattle, arrived at the North Pole this week, becoming the first US surface ship to do so unaccompanied. This is only the fourth time a US surface vessel has ever reached the North Pole, and the first since 2005.

Healy’s crew and science party, including several scientists and a graduate student from SOEST, departed Dutch Harbor, Alaska on 09 August 2015, in support of GEOTRACES, a historic, international effort to study the geochemistry of the world’s oceans. This National Science Foundation  (NSF) funded scientific expedition, with a diverse team from multiple scientific institutions is focused on studying the Arctic Ocean to meet a number of scientific goals, including the creation of a baseline of measurements for future comparisons.

On-board the Healy, Oceanography Professor Chris Measures and research affiliate Mariko Hatta are measuring trace elements such as dissolved iron, aluminum and manganese in seawater samples taken throughout the expedition. This project, jointly funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, will help scientists understand the geochemical cycling in the Arctic Ocean and its connection to the physical mixing and biological processes in this understudied part of the world’s ocean.

Read more about it in the UH Mānoa News.