RRS Sir David Attenborough SD041
Cruise summary report
| Cruise Info. | |
| Ship name (ship code) | RRS Sir David Attenborough (FKAD) |
| Cruise identifier | SD041 |
| Cruise period | 2024-07-19 — 2024-08-30 |
| Status | Completed |
| Port of departure | Rosyth, United Kingdom |
| Port of return | Rosyth, United Kingdom |
| Purpose | Research |
| Objectives | The overall aims of the KANG-GLAC project are to quantify the rates of ice loss from Greenland's marine-terminating outlet glaciers and their oceanic drivers on decadal to centennial timescales, and to assess the impacts on ocean circulation and marine productivity. We adopt a multi-disciplinary approach to achieve these goals, integrating observations from marine geology and geophysics, onshore studies of glacial geology, contemporary oceanography, as well as marine biological and biogeochemical approaches. Observational datasets acquired during SD041 will underpin numerical modelling to assess the rates and magnitude of ice-sheet change during Holocene warm periods as an analogue for future Greenland Ice Sheet (GrIS) change. Cruise SD041 on the RRS Sir David Attenborough to the fjords and continental shelf of central east Greenland in July-August 2024 was the main data collection phase for the project.
SD041 was a 42-day cruise to the fjords of East Greenland, in the vicinity of Kangerlussuaq Fjord (KF). Because KF was prohibited due to narwhal breeding in the summer months, the work areas for the cruise consisted of the Kangerlussuaq Trough and the fjords north and south of KF. Three new fjord/coastal embayments were mapped and investigated for their ice-sheet history, plus their contemporary oceanography and biology; onshore work was focussed on the bedrock around KF to reconstruct Holocene ice-sheet history in this, the largest fjord system in the area. A total of 83 scientists, science support personnel, officers and crew were on board for SD041. |
| Chief scientist | Colm O'Cofaigh (University of Durham Department of Geography), Kelly A Hogan (British Antarctic Survey) |
| Project | KANG-GLAC |
| Coordinating body | NERC, BAS, Durham University, SAMS, Bonn University, Leeds University |
| Cruise report |  (22.94 MB) |
| Ocean/sea areas | |
| General | North West Atlantic Ocean (limit 40W) |
| Specific | Denmark Strait, East Greenland Fjords |
| Track charts | (0.25 MB) |
| Measurements | |
| Physical oceanography | |
| CTD stations | Quantity: number of profiles = 132 Description: Water samples for salts, oxygen isotopes (307 samples), plus water for biogeochemical filtering (POC, PIC, silicates) at 11 stations. 90 casts taken from SDA; 42 additional casts from workboat Erebus. |
| Subsurface temperature and salinity measurements | Quantity: number of dives = 28 Description: Gavia AUV survey data: seafloor multibeam echosounder, underway ocean T/S, underway ADCP. |
| Current profiler (eg ADCP) | Quantity: number of profiles = 90 Description: Lowered ADCP as part of CTD casts. |
| Current profiler (eg ADCP) | Quantity: number of profiles = 2 Description: Underway vessel-mounted ADCP profiles. 150 kHz + 75 kHz. |
| Current profiler (eg ADCP) | Quantity: number of dives = 28 Description: Gavia AUV survey data: seafloor multibeam echosounder, underway ocean T/S, underway ADCP. |
| Other physical oceanographic measurements | Quantity: number of measurements = 23 Description: Micro Structure Shear measurements of ocean turbulence. |
| Biology and fisheries | |
| Biochemical measurements (eg lipids, amino acids) | Quantity: number of profiles = 132 Description: Water samples for salts, oxygen isotopes (307 samples), plus water for biogeochemical filtering (POC, PIC, silicates) at 11 stations. 90 casts taken from SDA; 42 additional casts from workboat Erebus. |
| Sediment traps | Quantity: number of deployments = 6 Description: Drifting sediment traps. |
| Phytoplankton | Quantity: number of deployments = 60 Description: Bongo net deployments. To be analysed for Carbon content and type (faecal matter etc). |
| Zooplankton | Quantity: number of deployments = 18 Description: MOCNESS multi-net deployments for zooplankton community characterisation. |
| Zooplankton | Quantity: number of deployments = 60 Description: Bongo net deployments. To be analysed for Carbon content and type (faecal matter etc). |
| Acoustic reflection on marine organisms. | Quantity: activity duration in days = 42 Description: Underway biological echsounder (EK80). |
| Geology and geophysics | |
| Core - soft bottom | Quantity: number of cores = 64 Description: Long and short seafloor sediment cores. Planned analyses are biogeochemical to look at nutrient cycling, radiocarbon dating for ice-sheet history reconstruction, and lithological analyses to characterise sediments. |
| Multi-beam echosounding | Quantity: number of dives = 28 Description: Gavia AUV survey data: seafloor multibeam echosounder, underway ocean T/S, underway ADCP. |
| Multi-beam echosounding | Quantity: activity duration in days = 42 Description: Underway multibeam and sub-bottom echosounder data. |
| Single channel seismic reflection | Quantity: activity duration in days = 42 Description: Underway multibeam and sub-bottom echosounder data. |
| Other geological/geophysical measurements | Quantity: number of samples = 80 Description: Terrestrial rock and lake samples collected on shore. Planned analyses are cosmogenic dating (rocks) and radiocarbon dating and lithological analyses (lake cores). |
| Moorings, landers, buoys | |
| Physical oceanography | |
| Subsurface temperature measurements | 67° 28' 43" N 32° 59' 19" W — Ocean + biological bottom mooring. Deployed once during cruise, then recovered and redeployed at the end of the cruise to be collected twice more (summer 2025 and finally in 2026). |
| Current profiler (eg ADCP) | 67° 28' 43" N 32° 59' 19" W — Ocean + biological bottom mooring. Deployed once during cruise, then recovered and redeployed at the end of the cruise to be collected twice more (summer 2025 and finally in 2026). |
| Surface drifters/drifting buoys | 67° 33' 36" N 31° 13' 28" W — LoTUS 77 Bottom-tethered buoy. Deployed 22/08/2024 |
| Surface drifters/drifting buoys | 67° 55' 19" N 31° 41' 9" W — LoTUS 75 Bottom-tethered buoy. Deployed 29/07/2024 |
| Surface drifters/drifting buoys | 68° 14' 32" N 30° 35' 7" W — LoTUS 76 Bottom-tethered buoy. Deployed 03/08/2024 |
| Biology and fisheries | |
| Sediment traps | 67° 28' 43" N 32° 59' 19" W — Ocean + biological bottom mooring. Deployed once during cruise, then recovered and redeployed at the end of the cruise to be collected twice more (summer 2025 and finally in 2026). |
