Thickness, Salinity, Temperature and Strength of Multi-Year Sea Ice, Beaufort Sea

The viability of newly developed equipment to measure the strength of multi-year ice at depths where no information presently exists was demonstrated during the first field program in May 2012 in Resolute, Nunavut. It was tested on hummocked multi-year ice from 3 to 20 May. Measurements were constrained to one hummocked multi-year ice floe for the purposes of testing the equipment. Ice cores were extracted from two boreholes to document the temperature and salinity of the ice to a maximum depth of 12 m. In situ strength tests were conducted in both boreholes at depth intervals of 30 cm to document changes in strength vs. depth, and to relate this information to the ice temperature and salinity. Ice thicknesses were measured at a total of 20 holes using drill hole and steam hole techniques. Measurements from the 2012 field program are unique because they provide the only available information about the keel strength of thick, hummocked multi-year ice below a depth of 10 m. Four offshore trips took place during the second field program the following year, from 16 March to 10 April, 2013 in Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories. A total of 6 floes were visited, 4 tracking beacons were deployed on individual floes, and 37 drill-hole/steam-hole measurements were made to document the ice thickness. Strength measurements on multi-year ice were not obtained, as the 2013 field program was cut short due to funding constraints. The viability of a third field program for spring 2014 is currently under consideration. Sea ice thickness, salinity and temperature data are available in .xls and .csv formats. Sea ice strength data is not presented, please contact the Principal Investigator for further information.