Nares Strait 2012: First Petermann Ice Island Photos

The CCGS Henry Larsen dropped its science party of nine at Resolute on Cornwallis Island near the center of Lancaster Sound. We are staying at the “Polar Continental Shelf Project” which is a Government Canada base for science and logistics people working all over the Canadian High Arctic. Over dinner we met a group of graduate students, botanists, whom we had met 4 days ago at Alexandra Fjord where they were living since June. I had missed the rendezvous on the water then, because I freakishly tried to refurbish a tide gauge that we recovered in the morning and re-deployed in the afternoon. One of the students, Anne, told Renske and me, that they saw narwhales at Alexandra Fjord for the first time in at least 4 summers that she lived there. I wonder, if those were the same narwhales that we Petermann Fjord.

North-eastern portion of Petermann Glacier on Aug.-11, 2012, the meandering river is the centerline, view is almost due east. [Photo Credit: Canadian Coast Guard Ship Henry Larsen.]

Which brings me to the purpose of this quick blog entry: The Internet on land, while not much faster than on the ship, is more stable. This allowed me to download the first photos of both the ice island at the entrances of Petermann Fjord and the new front of the glacier far into the fjord. The pictures were taken from the helicopter checking on the ice island last Friday as we worked sections deep inside the fjord. It was a frantic day of data collection in stunned scenery. It was challenging to stay focused on keeping sensors, computers, and winches running smoothly with so much natural beauty in all directions. I will post more photos in higher resolution as soon as we are getting home late sunday night. As a first teaser, however, here the first of many photos and videos. The two photos below I degraded from 4-6 MB to 0.1-0.2 MB to allow for limited bandwidth up north.

Petermann Ice Island 2012 (PII-2012) as seen Aug.-11, 2012 at the entrance of Petermann Fjord. The view is to the north-west. [Photo Credit: Canadian Coast Guard Ship Henry Larsen.]

Addendum: Last night I uploaded the 4.6 MB version of the image. Photo credit should again be given to Canadian Coast Guard Ship Henry Larsen, it was Jo Poole of British Columbia who took the picture using the official ship’s camera. Leaving for Iqualuit in 3 hours.