Leg 2

Dimitri Alexandrovitch Karpenko, captain of the Akademik Treshnikov

By Eric Hoesli, EPFL professor Par Eric Hoesli, professeur à l’EPFL From the ship’s bridge, he can be heard quickly climbing the steps. Everyone is at their post when the captain arrives. Dmitri Karpenko – who is deferentially referred to on board by his patronymic, Dmitri Alexandrovich – occupies the […]

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“We want to see how deep-sea communities have changed”

Bastien Confino (RTS) spoke with Guillaume Massé, a geochemist at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and Université Laval in Quebec. Photos by Noé Sardet (Parafilms, EPFL). French below… – Now that we are nearing this Glacier, a place you know well. How do you feel? Even when […]

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A deep dive under a glacier

by Noé Sardet, Parafilms, EPFL Par Noé Sardet, Parafilms, EPFL The first dive beneath the Mertz Glacier was a real challenge. Getting under the glacier would be more difficult than expected. A huge underwater ice cavern stretches below the glacier’s tongue. The whole team was surprised to discover this massive […]

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Scott Island, a rocky outcrop rarely treaded

By Christian de Marliave, ACE expedition head of logistics/directeur logistique de l’expédition ACE.   Scott Island came into sight at 5pm on 5 February. It was our second 5 February at these latitudes this year: after leaving Cape Town, we sailed in the eastern longitudes, while Scott Island is located […]

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Mapping Balleny Islands…

After the Mertz stopover, ACE expedition reached the Balleny archipelago, a serie of uninhabited volcanic islands. Realizing that their is no good map of the Balleny Islands, David Walton proposed a new mission for ACE: Create a topographic map of the islands Young Buckle and Sabrina. Therefore, the media team […]

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Iron chemistry in the Southern Ocean

By Christel Hassler, Professor of marine and lake biogeochemistry, University of Geneva. Principal investigator, ACE project “Biodiversity and isolation of bacteria and viruses in contrasted regions from the Southern Ocean”.     During this second leg, oceanographers have sampled highly contrasted water ranging from highly productive polynya waters in the […]

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“For a change of scenery and light every day”

By Eric Hoesli, EPFL professor Par Eric Hoesli, professeur à l’EPFL On board, it’s difficult not to notice Kristina, one of the young members of the Russian crew. She’s covered from head to toe in tattoos. Only her face, with its fine features and her large, delicately outlined eyes, shows […]

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“Studying the biggest waves on Earth to understand our climate”

Among the 22 scientific projects carried out during the expedition, one focuses on waves. It aims at collecting an uninterrupted set of wind, wave, and surface current data throughout the entire expedition. Alessandro Toffoli, associate professor at the University of Melbourne and ocean wave expert, explains the project’s goals to […]

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