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Europe’s Aurora - a dreamboat for drilling in the cold
Plans in Europe are underway for the first icebreaker for scientific purposes equipped with deep sea drilling gear. Dubbed the Aurora Borealis, if the ship makes it off the drawing board and becomes a reality it will participate in the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) and help to boost the amount of core data available from the Arctic.
The 24 country IODP project already has two dedicated vessels - Japan’s brand new Chikyu drill ship, which users riser drilling, and the modernised US riserless ship the JOIDES Resolution. At the moment the EU and Canada are contributing to the project with “mission-specific” operations in areas that are hard to reach for the other boats, such as shallow waters and ice-covered oceans.
“We can drill in the Arctic with the technology we have,” said Catherine Mevel of the European Consortium for Ocean Research Drilling. “But this will be easier with a dedicated ship.”
The Aurora is planned to be 200 m long and 50 m wide with two moon pools to enable drilling and scientific measurements of the ocean even if there is strong ice cover. Earlier expeditions to drill in the Arctic such as ACEX used three ships, including a Russian nuclear icebreaker, whereas the Aurora would be able to complete missions without support from other ships.
At the moment a group is investigating the specifications and funding options for the ship, which would cost around $50-60 m a year to run.
A dedicated workshop on scientific drilling at Vienna University will follow the EGU meeting this week.
