The Hinlopen/Yermak Megaslide (HYM) - Understanding an exceptional submarine landslide, its consequences and relation to the deep structure of the Sophia Basin (Sophia-HYM) - Cruise No. MSM31 - August 17 - September 18, 2013 - Tromsø (Norway) - Bremen (Deutschland) (English)

The Arctic changes rapidly in response to global warming and is expected to change even faster in the future (IPCC 2001, 2007, 2013). Large areas of the shelves and continental slopes bordering the Arctic Ocean are characterized by permafrost and the presence of gas hydrates. Future global warming and potential hydrate dissociation in the Arctic Ocean challenge the slope stability of these areas. This may lead to slope failures. The first, and so far only reported, largescale slope failure in the Arctic Ocean is the Hinlopen/Yermak Megaslide (HYM). Following our previous studies, we wanted to investigate this giant slope failure and the deeper structure of the Sophia Basin in detail to elucidate the potential causes of the main and following failure events as well as to test existing hypotheses on the generation of this giant submarine landslide. Our investigations focused on (1) pre-site survey of proposed IODP drill sites, (2) deep tectonic structure and seismicity of the Sophia Basin and (3) future failure potential north of Svalbard. Furthermore, we extended measurements along the Spitsbergen Fracture Zone in the Fram Strait, where a new deep-sea slide was discovered in 2012 during cruise MSM 21/4. Also, we tied existing ODP drill holes on top of the southern Yermak Plateau to our new and existing seismic networks. We applied a combination of hydro-acoustic mapping, deep and high-resolution multichannel seismic reflection profiling and a wide-angle seismic survey with broad-band oceanbottom seismometers (BB-OBS). We mapped two headwall and sidewall areas of the HYM for indication of gas seepage including sampling. In addition, we sampled sediments to characterize the young sedimentation record, for dating and for geo-technical analysis.