Other projects within SWEDARCTIC 2008

LASHIPA 5 - Large Scale Historical Industrial exploitation of Polar Areas

LASHIPA (Large Scale Historical Industrial exploitation of Polar Areas) is an international historical and archaeological research project within the International Polar Year 2007-2008. The purpose of the project is to explain the industrial development and exploitation in the polar areas from 1600 until today, and the influence of the industry on the geopolitical situation and the local environment. During the summer of 2008 fieldwork is planned in the Grønfiord area in Svalbard.

Principal Investigators: Dag Avango, History of Science and Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm and Louwrens Hacquebord, Arctic Centre, University of Groningen, The Netherlands.

» Read more on the website www.lashipa.nl

An evaluation of models for Martian gully formation using remote sensing and in situ measurements of Svalbard analogues

The purpose of this project is to improve the understanding of the formation mechanisms of Martian gullies and to investigate whether water could be the potential eroding agent. This will be accomplished by analyzing satellite remote sensing data of analogue gully sites on Svalbard by using similar methodologies to those used in previous studies of Martian gullies. The results will be compared with measurements made in situ at Svalbard in order to validate the conclusions drawn from the satellite data. In addition, an extensive set of measurements that cannot be conducted from orbit, will also be made on site at Svalbard. The knowledge gained from this comparison will be used to make a qualitatively evaluation of the conclusions drawn from previous studies of gully formation on Mars, where only remote sensing data is available. This project is also part of the IPY (International Polar Year) project #432, where the polar regions of Earth will be investigated in order to facilitate the interpretation of the data from the Phoenix Lander on Mars.

Principal Investigator: Ella Carlsson, Solar system physics and space technology, Swedish Institute of Space Physics, Kiruna.

Evolution and palaeobiogeography of Cenozoic mammals in northern Europe

The study of the northernmost Cenozoic land mammals of Europe shall test, whether one of two direct land bridges - the De Geer Route passed Svalbard or the Thule Bridge across the Faroe Islands and Iceland - served as dispersal corridor between North America and Europe in the Early Tertiary. There is palaeozoological (similarity of mammalian palaeofaunas, mammal fossils from Ellesmere Island), palaeobotanical (Eocene floras of Svalbard, Miocene floras on Iceland), biological (biogeography, molecular data), and geological/geophysical (sea floor spreading, plate tectonics) evidence that indicates one or two landbridges. But still they are hypothetical, and can only be proven by the existence of mammalian faunas from the Brito-Arctic Igneous Province (BIP).

The study area is one part of the BIP (Spitsbergen). Stratigraphically, the project is focused to the Early Eocene (50 Ma). Technically, it includes the palaeontological and geochemical analysis of mammal fossils as well as field work in terrestrial, lignite bearing sediments. Vertebrate palaeontology includes taxonomy, systematics and palaeobiology, geochemistry includes a multiproxy isotope approach with the analysis of Sr, Nd, U, Pb, REE, 18O/16O in bones and teeth of fossil and Extant mammals and in the sediments. The study will provide a much better understanding of the evolution, palaeobiogeography and palaeoclimate of high-latitude mammalian faunas in Cenozoic Northern Europe.

Principal Investigators: Thomas Mörs and Jonas Hagström, Department of Palaeozoology, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm.

Lower Palaeozoic faunas from North-Eastern Spitsbergen

The Lower Palaeozoic rocks of the Valhallfonna Formation are exposed along the coast of the Valhallfonna glacier in North Ny Friesland, North-Eastern Spitsbergen. Although the basic stratigraphy and faunas (in particular trilobites and graptolites) have been previously described, there has been little attempt to study the entire fauna in detail. The main aim of the projected field work is to sample for Brachiopods and Gastropods, which remain largely unknown.

Principal Investigator: Lars Holmer, Department of Earth Sciences, Palaeobiology, Uppsala University.

RINK (Response of the Inland ice-sheet to natural climate changes) - glaciological-historical studies in southwest Greenland

The international RINK (Respons af Indlandsisen til Naturlige Klimaændringer - Response of the Inland ice-sheet to natural climate changes) project will investigate how the ice margin reacted to earlier periods of warming, the interrelationship between sea-ice and sea-level changes and not at least how its effected human adaptation and migration. Even though the interior of the Greenland Ice Sheet contains the largest mass it is local climatic and topographical conditions that control the discharge of ice - and therefore the intensity of response to climatic change. RINK pursue a better understanding of the ice marginal dynamic i.e. how and how fast the ice sheet retreated and thinned over timescales of 100-200 years and even up to 1000-3000 years. Raised coastal landforms will indicate if open water or permanent sea-ice prevailed along the coasts, thus enable a new understanding of the sustainability of palaeoeskimos that once lived in Greenland's most inhospitable regions. Finally, by applying 3D-visualisation we propose to illustrate the evolution of the ice free land and the ice marginal zone through time, and to enhance the public understanding of the complex geological processes behind the changes of the Greenland Ice sheet during the last 10,000 years.

Principal Investigator: Kurt H Kjaer, Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen University, Denmark. Swedish participant: Nikolaj Krog Larsen, Department of Geology, Quaternary Sciences, Lund University.

» Read more on the website of the Danish Geological Museum

Arctic tectonic evolution: Ellesmere Island - PLATES & GATES

Principal Investigator: Victoria Pease, Stockholms universitet.

» Read more on the website of Stockholm University