HA&S 222a Spr 2006Lecture 1 slides

28 iii 2006

Faroe Islands (~Denmark)Shetland Islands (Scotland)

Labrador Sea(see fig.19)

Research vessel Knorr, Labrador Sea

Earth’s topography, both on land and the seafloor (red, brown=high; light blue=shallow ocean, deep blue = deep ocean). Note Greenland

with its 3000m high ice cap denoted in orange.

winter in west Greenland (near the capital, Nuuk)

Clouds over Greenland sit above the crest of the ice cap as the wind blows through them. It is one of the stormiest areas in the world.

LetLet’’s remove the ice s remove the ice (only temporarily) the Greenland ice cap (only temporarily) the Greenland ice cap has weighted down the solid Earth, pushing it below sea levelhas weighted down the solid Earth, pushing it below sea level…….a .a veritable precipitation veritable precipitation guageguage recording the past 120,000 years or recording the past 120,000 years or more of winter snowfallmore of winter snowfall

The following images from Prof. Konrad Steffen, Univ. of Colorado

Greenland reaches ¼ of the way betweenPole and Equator (2500 km, or about 23 degreesof latitude).

Petermann Glacier flows out over the sea: northwest GreenlandK. Steffen photo

Glaciers are ‘grounded’ as they flow slowly toward the sea, but the float as they encounter dense sea water. Here the smooth white is sea ice, just a meter or

two thick, whereas the glacial ice is 100s of m thick (1000s of m further inland). Note the icebergs fracturing off the ice tongue

Ellesmere Island, Canada

Native names for Greenland villages have now replaced European names.

John Rasmussen photos of Greenlandand its transportation system

The Greenland flag resembles a setting sun. It is their symbol of home rule, or independence from centuries of Danishrule. However it is still dominated by Denmark economically, politically and in technology. Christianity reachedGreenland when the Vikings gave up their Nordic gods, in about 1000 AD. Greenland had its own bishop, smallcathedral, and many churches.

Greenland native

Birds, fish, whales are concentrated in particular regions of the Arctic and Arctic rim, where the plankton they depend upon is found.

Beluga (white) whale

Our field research in climate change involves launching roboticundersea vehicles offshore of Nuuk, Greenland. This is the Seaglider, invented and developed in UW’s School of Oceanography

Narwhal and Seagliders inhabit the same part of the ocean (and both are now instrumented)

Looking down on northern Labrador Sea,, betweenGreenland and Baffin Island. A dense ice-floe ismoving southward on the west side of the ocean, while

clouds cover the eastern region; the Greenland coast is visble at upper right. See fig. 1 BothSeagliders and narwhal are found here.

Seaglider

Narwhal

ice

cloud

Baffin Island

Faroe Islands (between Norway and Iceland), have about 45,000 inhabitants descended from Viking settlers. They still speak their own distinct language, with its roots related to the old Norse spoken by the Vikings. Much about the Viking world was described in epic ‘sagas’ which were written, some in verse,

and somewhat in the spirit of Lord of the Rings. They were written from roughly A.D. 1000 onward, and record much earlier events as well.

The rugged coast of theFaroes

Kirkjabour, first settled by Celtic friars who arrived at the Faroes in skin boats, around 800 A.D. Viking exploration apparently began abruptly in A.D. 793 with an attack on Lindesfarne, an island off the NE (northeast) coast of Scotland. Viking settlers spread quickly westward to the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland. About A.D. 1000 it reached a brief (maybe 10 year) colonization of Labrador, where recent archaeological digs show a Viking settlement at L’anse aux Meadows, which you can visit today. This was long before Christopher Columbus ‘discovered’ America.There is an unfinished gothic cathedral here from the Middle Ages.

Whaling harpoons at Kirkjabour (Olavar Hatun, left is a musician who founded the Faroese national choir).

Torshavn, capital of the Faroes. The kinds of villages and settlements one finds around the Arctic rim vary greatly; here we have an idyllic

Scandavian village with a rich history.

The economies of the Arctic settlements invariably involve fish, oil or gas: natural resources that are much sought after by their European, North

American or Asian trading partners. But also resources that depend on or affect the environment strongly.

Svalbard 780 North was developed for its coal by a Mr. Longyear of Boston Massachusetts at the turn of the last

century. Its capital is Longyearbyn. It is now the site of the northernmost university (UNIS) in the world

The Norwegian research ship Hakon Mosby, which carries out oceanographic and climate research in the region. We studied a fjord

on Svalbard and its oceanographic behavior in an August 2005 research cruise. During this period polar bears were aggressively trying

to defeat the science.

The Inuitof northern Canada

Aboriginal land claims: the ‘final agreement’ 1993, making an autonomous native territory of Canada (partial home rule)

INUIT CIRCUMPOLAR CONFERENCEThe Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ІСС) is the international organizationrepresenting approximately 150.000 Inuit livingin the Arctic regions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland and Chukotka, Russia. www.inuit.org/

This carved horse is one of the earliest works of art known to mankind, along with cave paintings from about this period. It is from the tusk of a woolly mammoth, at the edge of the glacial world of 31,000 years ago. Very much in the spirit of current native art of the far north, it reminds us that people chose to live in these harshly cold places.

Possibly this was because of the food and fuel provided abundantly by the rich Arctic ecosystem…all the way along the food chain

The native kayak of Greenland evolved over the 6000 years (or so) of native occupation there. It is efficient, light and adaptable in comparison with modern plastic or kevlar kayaks. Built from drift wood and seal-skin, it allows hunters to harpoon seal and small whales. This modern replica uses canvas instead of seal-skin, sewn and bound together with cotton thread soaked in linseed oil. It is ecologically friendly: the Danish teacher of the boat building class said “There’s nothing in this boat you couldn’t eat. When youare finished with it, it will decay gracefully unlike the plastic things all round us.”

principal Canadian Inuit communities

Their homeland stretches from the northeastern tip of Russia across Alaska and northern Canada to parts of Greenland.Inuit refers to the people formerly called Eskimos. The term Eskimo comes from a Native American word that may have meant 'eater of raw meat http://collections.ic.gc.ca/arctic/inuit/people.htm

Chukchi nativesof Russia

/www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/features/croads/chukchi.html

HA&S 222a Spr 2006Lecture 1 slides28 iii 2006Earth’s topography, both on land and the seafloor (red, brown=high; light blue=shallow ocean, deep blue = deep ocean). Note GrClouds over Greenland sit above the crest of the ice cap as the wind blows through them. It is one of the stormiest areas in tGlaciers are ‘grounded’ as they flow slowly toward the sea, but the float as they encounter dense sea water. Here the smooth wBirds, fish, whales are concentrated in particular regions of the Arctic and Arctic rim, where the plankton they depend upon iFaroe Islands (between Norway and Iceland), have about 45,000 inhabitants descended from Viking settlers. They still speak theKirkjabour, first settled by Celtic friars who arrived at the Faroes in skin boats, around 800 A.D. Viking exploration apparWhaling harpoons at Kirkjabour (Olavar Hatun, left is a musician who founded the Faroese national choir).Torshavn, capital of the Faroes. The kinds of villages and settlements one finds around the Arctic rim vary greatly; here weThe economies of the Arctic settlements invariably involve fish, oil or gas: natural resources that are much sought after by tSvalbard 780 North was developed for its coal by a Mr. Longyear of Boston Massachusetts at the turn of the last century. Its cThe Norwegian research ship Hakon Mosby, which carries out oceanographic and climate research in the region. We studied a fjorThe Inuitof northern CanadaAboriginal land claims: the ‘final agreement’ 1993, making an autonomous native territory of CanaThis carved horse is one of the earliest works of art known to mankind, along with cave paintings from about this period. It iThe native kayak of Greenland evolved over the 6000 years (or so) of native occupation there. It is efficient, light and adaptprincipal Canadian Inuit communities