Two upcoming expeditions to the Arctic Ocean

This summer and fall, i2B will send two independent research cruises into the central Arctic Ocean. Though both expeditions share the same overarching goal — reconstructing the Arctic's warm climate past to better understand its warming future — they will sail on different vessels, follow different routes, and pursue distinct scientific objectives.

Why the Arctic's past matters for its future

The Arctic Ocean is warming nearly four times faster than the global average, a phenomenon known as Arctic Amplification. To improve projections of how the region will respond to continued warming, scientists need geological archives from past warm climate states — including Pleistocene super-interglacials and the Pliocene and Miocene warm periods, all at least 2°C warmer than today. Large parts of the central Arctic Ocean remain poorly sampled. Both LAMEX 1 and KH7013 aim to close these gaps, each from a different angle.

LAMEX 1 (PS156) — RV Polarstern

6 August – 14 October 2026 | Tromsø, Norway → Bremerhaven, Germany | 70 days

Led by Catalina Gebhardt (expedition lead) and Juliane Müller (co-lead), LAMEX 1 is the first of two planned LAMEX expeditions investigating how major bathymetric structures — the Lomonosov Ridge, the Alpha Ridge, and the Morris Jesup Rise and Spur — have shaped ocean circulation, sedimentation, and sea-ice conditions in the central Arctic Ocean over time. Through geophysical surveying, sediment coring, and oceanographic observations, the expedition will reconstruct past changes in sea-ice cover and ocean circulation, with particular attention to the Last Ice Area off northeastern Greenland, while also identifying potential sites for future scientific deep drilling.

More information is available on the AWI expeditions website.

Follow the cruise blog on the RV Polarstern website.

KH7013 — RV Kronprins Haakon

12 September – 10 October 2026 | Longyearbyen → Longyearbyen

Led by Jochen Knies (UiT) and Stijn De Schepper (UiB/NORCE), the KH7013 cruise targets the retrieval of climate archives from Pliocene and Miocene times — sediments that, at select sites, are exposed directly at the seafloor along the Lomonosov Ridge. Building on locations identified during previous cruises, the team has selected several potential working sites to accommodate variable autumn sea-ice conditions, with the main scientific program focused on coring and seabed mapping to retrieve sediment records of past Arctic warmth.

Two ships, two missions, one shared goal

Together, LAMEX 1 and KH7013 form a coordinated push by the i2B project to fill critical gaps in the Arctic's sedimentary record. Each expedition's findings will feed into the project's wider aim: improving our understanding of how a "blue," increasingly ice-free Arctic Ocean behaved during past warm climates — and what that means for the warming Arctic of today.