Investigation of large ice rubble field in the Barents Sea

The Characteristics of ice ridges and rubble fields in the Barents Sea are of great interest for the formulation of design criteria for offshore structures. But there are quite a few field observations and measurements. On 2 of May 2016 UNIS researchers and students, due to unusual little ice coverage, reached on RV Lance Northern-East end of the Edge Island (East of Spitsbergen) and observed large ice rubble field with frozen in icebergs stretching on several km along the coast. Laser scanning from the Lance board was performed to estimate spatial variations of vertical elevation of above water part of the rubble. 2 CTD profiles performed near the rubble identified that entire water column of 40 m depth was around the freezing point with couple of fresher water intrusions on different depths. Further investigation of high-resolution satellite images since 2009 gave information about structure, size, formation and evolution of the rubble every year and revealing possible cause as grounded on the shallow icebergs. Analysis of ice drift data from IFREMER and own ice trackers allowed to describe possible origins of the ice rubble and its future development.