Helicopters and Quick Sand

"I have never landed on sand before so you will have to tell where looks best"

On a crisp sunny Sunday morning we met our Norwegian helicopter pilot on the landing pad. There are no helicopters stationed in Kangerlussuaq except a massive search and rescue vessel.

Search and Rescue Helicopter in Hanger

We had four potential stops picked out. The principle investigators (PIs) had scoured google earth looking for sub glacial drainage sites and found 4 candidates (one heavily researched by another team). Our pilot was new to flying in Greenland, his first summer. Because there is no helicopter in Kangerlussuaq he had to fly a B12 from Nuuk. The B12 is a much smaller helicopter than the Huey used in Thule. And in the Air Greenland colors it looks almost like a lady bug. With only 3 of us traveling this time, I got both a window seat and a headset! So it felt like a real helicopter mission. 

B12 Helicopter. Looks like a lady bug!

Air Greenland Helicopter Logo

Me looking all helicopter ready on 9/1/13

Our first stop was a fjord with two drainage streams. The water level was so low that nearly the whole fjord was one big sand bank with small streams cutting across it. Musk ox tracks in the sand suggested it could easily be traversed and even though our pilot had never landed in sand, he was more than willing to set our helicopter down on a packed bank. Our PI chose a dry location and the helicopter landed easily. That seemed easy enough. We needed to cross the river to access the first stream and after maybe 30 steps I sank down a foot. Quick sand. I pulled myself free and waited for the two PIs to cross the river and collect samples. Both were wearing hip waders and I just rubber boots. The river crossing was tricky but they came back with samples and we headed over to the other steam. Each step was carefully chosen. We followed the steps of each other trying to pick out the driest most well packed spots. Wearing hip waders, our leader walked into the edge of the stream. He walked a few feet when suddenly he sank down all the way to the hip. It happened in a blink of an eye. Just like in the movies. Of course he is the sort that will always tell you a story about a worst situation he had been in. A little quick sand would never stop him. He pulled himself out slowly retraced his steps and found another spot to sample. And people imagine scientists and geeks in a lab. This man is practically Indiana Jones of the Polar regions. We all made it back to the helicopter. The helicopter did not sink but it did set the pace for an exciting day. 

Helicopter parked on a sand bank by site 1

Outflow at site 1

Our next stop was a well researched sub-glacial out flow. The dissolved oxygen and conductivity readings reveal that the water mainly comes in contact with bedrock. We collected samples along the iceberg strewn river before heading off again.

Chunk of ice

Site 2

Our third stop was another impressive pilot landing this time on a narrow bank of rocks between a fast flowing stream and a cliff. The small helicopter was able to maneuver down along the walls landing us feet from the river. This made it possible to sample 4 sites in our three hours as opposed to in Thule where we were only able to sample 2 because we had to hike from the helicopter to the sight through an active mud flow.

Land on a dime

Another shot of site 3

Our final stop was probably our most dangerous. For those of you who have been following my adventures you know that sampling in the field has lead me to walk through ice, snow, 70mph wind, mud, ankle deep grass, cross rivers, active mud flows, glacial moraines and huge pile of rocks. Not once in this whole trip has someone told me something was too dangerous but finally I found the limit.

The last glacial outflow site we visited was a rapid moving stream that poured out of a massive cavern of black dirty ice. We sampled from the stream but I pointed to the mouth of the cave and said "Shouldn't we be sampling from there?" 

"You can sample from there if you want but the cave is going to collapse at some point and at least out here we won't get killed." 

That's right we were only sampling in the potential maiming zone not the death zone. I looked around for possible exit routes in case the cave started to collapse. As we worked, quickly, the ice groaned and cracked. Small chunks tumbled down. The cave did not collapse while we were there but I was certainly nervous as this was the first time someone else admitted it was dangerous.   

Collapsing Ice Cave

Science in Action

Break in the ice

So it was a successful day for science. We collected 3-4 types of samples from 4 locations. These were also the most expensive samples collected on the trip as the helicopter runs around $3000 per hour and we have to pay for it to fly to and from Nuuk. So about $15000 for the day.

I spent the remainder of Sunday day and the entire day Monday in the lab processing our precious samples. At this point all of the official science collection was done. One day ahead of schedule. Now we were able to enjoy a barbecue with our hosts at CPS and enjoy one full day of recreational hiking. I will write a brief post about that next before moving on to fabulous Copenhagen!