Approaching the North Pole

Late on 23 July we are approaching the Geographic North Pole. At a position of 89.38N, 50.63E we working through a large massif of old and very dirty ice. We encountered this same ice at the North Pole 10 days ago.

Several miles across, this massif of 10/10 ice is approximately 8/10 old ice at 100-200cm thickness where not deformed (note it is not heavily ridged but is best characterised as level floes). The ice is very dirty but not with algae; this appears to be sediment, perhaps from a river or shallow turbid sea. When ice is broken and overturns it can be seen that this sediment is present throughout at least a portion of the thickness of the ice. Note it is not always through the whole thickness of the ice; the lower layers are often clean, supporting the hypothesis that this is old ice, with sediment-free 1st year ice accreted beneath.

The ice is heavily melted, with 3-4/10 melt pond coverage; linked with open tops and some thaw holes.

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