Horton River Dispatch
Elizabeth Shadwick, Debbie Armstrong and Dan Nguyen
Everyday aboard the CCGS Amundsen is an adventure, but particularly so when the day begins with a helicopter flight to the mouth of the Horton River, which feeds into Franklin Bay.
For approximately one week, we’d been focussing our efforts on sampling a series of stations located near the outflow of the Horton River to Franklin Bay. Satellite imagery indicated a significant outflow of particulate matter from the river (see attached figure 1). Since both the input of freshwater and of riverine particulate matter, are of interest to many of the researchers on board, we wanted to collect surface water samples from the Horton River. A few days earlier, we tried to use the zodiac to collect river water sample, but due to poor visibility and very shallow water, we could not get close enough. This meant that the samples that we brought back to the ship had a salinity of about 10 (the salinity of Arctic Ocean water ranges from 28 to 32 at the surface, while river water, which is fresh, has a salinity of 0).
It seemed the helicopter was our only
option to reach the river, and to be frank,
all scientists onboard are excited at the
prospect of a helicopter ride. After
soliciting all those interested in river
water samples for bottles and instructions
for water collection, we three lucky
participants gathered on the heli deck.
We were given special orange survival
suits, which differ from the ones that we
normally wear out on the ice in that they
do not float - (apparently in case of an
emergency landing on the water. You don’t
want to be stuck in the aircraft because
your floater suit won’t allow you to dive
down and swim out the door...). Once suited
up, in our one size fits all or, in this
case none suits, with cameras ready, we
were off. The flight was spectacular. What
is left of the fast ice near land is
quickly breaking up and melting, making for
incredible patterns on the water as seen
from above. The pilot allowed us to open
one of the passenger doors during the
flight so that we could get clear photos of
the land below.
Figure
2: Horton River (photo by Elizabeth
Shadwick)
The river was only a short flight away, and
we landed on a small stretch of rocky beach
just beyond the mouth of the river. It has
been three weeks since we have walked on
land, so it was a treat to do this and it
delighted us all. We waded into the river,
which also means we got ‘booters’,
unintentionally bringing back some of the
Horton in our rubber boots. We filled
various bottles and syringes with river
water, which was surprisingly already
12
oC.
After the sampling there was time for a
quick photo shoot with the chopper (figure
3) – and then we were off back to the ship.
The ride home was equally spectacular – the
scenery up here is really something to see
(figure 4).
Figure
4: Sampling site (photo by Guilliaume
Carpentier) from left, PhD student
Elizabeth Shadwick, a MSc student, Dan
Nguyen and a lab technician, Debbie
Armstrong
Figure
4: ice breakup just East of the Horton
River inflow (photo by Elizabeth
Shadwick).
Upon return, we did a quick hose down to
rinse the mud off our suits and boots
(which we emptied and left to dry), and
headed down to the mess for lunch. All in a
days work!