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International Polar Year 2007–2008 - WMO

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276<br />

IPY 20 07–20 08<br />

sampling at relevant oceanic and terrestrial sites in<br />

the Arctic, sub-Arctic, Antarctic and the Southern<br />

Ocean in order to address specific objectives such as<br />

(1) seismic, magnetic and gravimetric surveying of<br />

crust and lithosphere of ocean basin, gateways and<br />

their continental margins for constraining past and<br />

present plate motions, mantle processes and vertical<br />

crustal motion, (2) reconstructing the distribution<br />

and variation of palaeo-current systems in the ocean<br />

basins by seismic imaging of sedimentary sequences<br />

in combination with analyses of palaeoceanographic<br />

proxies for decoding signals of past deepwater<br />

circulation patterns, (3) reconstructing the<br />

palaeobathymetric geometries of polar ocean<br />

gateways for shallow and deep water passages<br />

between basins at particular times, (4) reconstructing<br />

the long timescale palaeoclimatic evolution from the<br />

greenhouse conditions of the Mesozoic and Paleogene<br />

to icehouse conditions in the Neogene to Quaternary,<br />

and (5) numerical modelling of palaeo-current<br />

Fig. 2.8-3. PLATES & GATES<br />

research areas in the Arctic.<br />

1, Fram Strait, Svalbard and<br />

Barents Sea. 2, Greenland Sea<br />

and North Atlantic. 3, Laptev<br />

Sea / E Siberian Sea. 4, Central<br />

Arctic and Alpha-Mendeleev<br />

Ridge. 5, Ellesmere Is., Axel<br />

Heiberg Is. and Nares Strait. 6,<br />

Davis Strait and Baffin Bay. 7,<br />

Bering Strait.<br />

(Credit: ETOPO2 database, NOAA,<br />

National Geophysical Data Center, www.<br />

ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/global/etopo2.html)<br />

scenarios at varying gateway and basin geometries<br />

with regard to the global carbon cycle, the biological<br />

evolution and the development of ice sheets.<br />

Studies in the Arctic<br />

In the three Arctic field seasons of 2007, 2008 and<br />

2009, palaeomagnetic, stratigraphic and petrological<br />

data from Franz Josef Land, Axel Heiberg Island,<br />

Ellesmere Island, the New Siberian Islands and<br />

Northern Greenland were collected and are being<br />

analyzed. Geoscientific studies including bathymetric<br />

mapping, seismic and magnetic surveying, subbottom<br />

profiling and sediment coring were carried<br />

out in the Amundsen Basin on transects across the<br />

Alpha-Mendeleev Ridge, over the Lomonosov Ridge<br />

and from the North Greenland Shelf. Geological and<br />

neotectonic studies were conducted for North and<br />

East Greenland, Svalbard, Bear Island, Mohns Ridge,<br />

Knipovich Ridge and the Barents Sea. The gateways<br />

between the Arctic Ocean and the other world oceans

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