90 days out on the ice
Published on 02.07.2008 - Greenland Northward Expedition 2008
When they set out on this adventure, the sole aim of the Finns Petri Makela and Petri Vuorenmaa was to spend 90 days out on the Greenland icecap. They are now well on their way to achieving this goal.
On 28th June, after following in the footsteps of another expedition, Makela and Vuorenmaa reached the NEEM (North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling) research station. This international drilling base, run by the University of Copenhagen and Denmark's Centre for Ice and Climate, is supported by the US Office of Polar Programs and by America's renowned National Science Foundation (NSF).
By visiting the research station's website, we learn that the aim of the work being done out there in the middle of Greenland is to drill down 3 000 metres and to gather ice samples. Obviously, the scientific objective is to find out more about the climate (as is the case everywhere else researchers are carrying out deep drilling). The ice cores will be used to compare today's temperatures with those from the Eemian period, the last climate period which was similar to our own.
Like Hibbert and Bullach, the two Finns have also just passed the 2000 km mark out on the Greenland icecap. When they arrived at the NEEM base on 28th June, they had covered a total of 2036 km.
Now all they have to do is head for Qaanaaq, which they should reach in two weeks or so.
