The expedition

  • The expedition was leaving Resolute, northern Canada on 28 February 2008 and is expected to arrive at the geographic North Pole by early June 2008.
  • The Ice Team will walk 1,200 kilometres in around 100 days in temperatures as low as -50ºC (with wind-chill -90ºC) in the early stages.
  • The team will average about 11 miles (18 km) a day pulling sledges weighing up to 15.5 stone (100kg).
  • Hazards include: polar bear attacks, thin ice, open water, ice ridges, rubble-fields, fog, blizzards and carbon monoxide poisoning from cooking inside the tent.
  • They will be swimming for about 150 hours during the journey in water as cold as -1.8ºC (28ºF).
  • They will be re-supplied by fixed wing aircraft up to four times throughout the expedition.

The survey

  • Survey measurements by ice penetrating radar will be taken every 10cm.
  • The radar will produce separate readings for the depth of ice and the overlying snow.
  • Snow and ice samples will be taken on a daily basis over the 100 day expedition.
  • The survey vessel, or sledge, measures 2.3 metre long by 60cm wide by 80cm high; and fully loaded weighs up to 100kg.
  • The hull of the sledge was made in Germany and the rest of the vessel was made in Norway. It is will house the science and communication equipment.

The science

  • Scientific predictions of when the Arctic ice-cap will disappear vary. The IPCC predicts between 50-100 years. One super-computer model calculation by a reputed research organisation is in just five years.
  • The permanent central region of the Arctic Ocean’s ice-cap has receded by 300,000km each year since 2001. This is equivalent to an area the size of the United Kingdom, Poland, Italy, or the Philippines and greater than the size of California.
  • Up to 25 per cent of the Earth’s known oil and gas reserves lie under the Arctic Ocean’s seabed.
  • The ice-cap covers almost three per cent of the Earth’s surface and reflects approximately 80 per cent of incoming solar energy – its removal would allow 70 per cent more of the sun’s energy to be absorbed by the Earth’s surface in this region.
  • As the ice-cap melts, sea levels rise; during the 20th century sea levels rose between 10 and 20cms. A further increase of between 20cm and 80cm could lead to 300m people being flooded each year.
  • A rise of between 8cm and 30cm could lead to Indonesia losing up to 2,000 of its 17,508 islands.
  • Approximately 5m people live in the coastal regions of the Arctic – the loss of the ice-cap will mean an abrupt end to their way of life.