Page 37: of Marine Technology Magazine (November 2016)

Vestnesa Ridge in the Fram Strait in the Arctic Ocean is one of the key sites for CAGE research.

Illustration: Torger Grytå/CAGE

In July, CAGE undertook an expedition to the sedimented and gas-hydrate charged Vestnesa Ridge, offshore Svalbard.

Vestnesa lies on the active ridge system of the oceans, which are undersea mountain chains formed by tectonic movement and stretching around the globe. Utilizing advanced technol- ogy, an expert team of engineers, operators and researchers battled the elements, drilling at 1,200 meters of water depths down into the gas-hydrated sediments in an attempt to deter- mine how much methane is captured beneath the Arctic sub- seabed and, when released, how it will impact the regional

Arctic marine ecosystems. The expedition was in collabora- tion with MARUM in Germany and their mobile drilling rig,

MeBo, which was used to acquire gas-hydrate core samples from the sediments.

Mienert describes, “During this summer we had the drill- ing operation based on our 3D and 4D images. But CAGE undertook several expeditions this year that also focused on retrieving data regarding the development of marine ecosys- tems in the dark ocean