Asia/Pacific News
China in Arctic Crossing First
Chinese ice breaker Xuelong, or "Snow Dragon," returned to Shanghai Thursday to become the first vessel from China to cross the Arctic Ocean, the official press agency of the People's Republic of China reports.
A statement from the Polar Research Institute of China said there was a 119-member team aboard the vessel, which took three months to traverse the journey of 18,500 nautical miles, including 5,370 nautical miles in the Arctic ice zone.
The crew was said to have performed various scientific research tasks including systematic geophysical survey, installed an automatic meteorological station, and launched investigations on oceanic turbulence and methane content in the Arctic area.
They also held academic exchanges with their counterparts in Iceland, and the two groups conducted a joint oceanic survey in the waters around Iceland.
Xuelong is an A-2 class icebreaker capable of breaking ice 1.2 meters thick.
The U.S. National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) said last week that Arctic ice levels have fallen to their lowest summer cover since satellite data collection began.
