Thiede, Jörn , Pfirman, S., Johnson, G. L., Mudie, P. J., Mienert, Jürgen and Vorren, T. (1989) Arctic Deep-Sea Drilling: Scientific and Technical Challenge of the Next Decade. In: Arctic Deep-Sea Drilling: Scientific and Technical Challenge of the Next Decade. , ed. by Ayala-Castanares, A., Wooster, W. and Yanez-Arancibia, A.. UNAM Press, Mexico, pp. 41-57.

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Abstract

Why is it important to go to the major expense and long-term effort of organizing, preparing and executing
drilling in the permanently ice-covered, deep-sea regions of the Arctic? Because of its unique characteristics,
the Arctic Ocean has a climatic and oceanographic influence far beyond its limited geographic extent. For
example, deep water formed in the polar and subpolar seas fills the basins of the rest of the world's ocean. The
modern Arctic sea ice cover, although apparently thermodynamically unstable, has existed for severul million
years, affecting global heat budgets and therefore the global climate system. Yet we do not know when deep
waters of the Arctic Ocean were first linked with those of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea, nor when sea ice first
covered the Arctic Basin. Likewise the geologic composition and history of major morphologic features, ridges,
plateaus and margins are practically unknown. This knowledge is missing because of a lack of appropriate
samples of sediment and bedrock. With a coordinated effort of site surveying and drilling in the Arctic it would
be feasible to obtain the required material. This report presents a scientific rationale and an organizational
scheme together with various technological options for drilling in this hostile environment.

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