I . INTRODUCTION 



A. A Brief History of Exploration of the Kara Sea. 



William Barents made the first known survey of the Kara Sea in 

 1594. Later, with the urging of Peter the Great in the early 1700' s, 

 the Great Northern Expedition of 1733 to 1743 succeeded in mapping 

 the northern coast of Asia and Europe. Economic reasons, rather than 

 scientific, were the primary motivation for these early explorations 

 as attempts were made to find a water route over the top of Eurasia 

 between the eastern and western civilizations (Gordienko, 1961). In 

 1763, Mikhail Lomonosov wrote the first significant scientific work 

 on this area, "Brief Account of Travels in the Northern Seas." The 

 Swedish explorer N.A.E. Nordenskjold made the first passage from the 

 Barents Sea to the Pacific Ocean in 1878 and established the Northeast 

 Passage. Nordenskjold also explored the Kara Sea in 1875 and 1876 

 and published the first accurate chart of the area. 



In 1893, the Norwegian oceanographer Fridtjof Nansen crossed the 

 Kara Sea in the historic voyage of the FRAM (Nansen, 1902). 



The U.S.S.R. has undertaken an extensive oceanographic program 

 in the arctic peripheral seas; however, the data collected on these 

 surveys are not readily available to western scientists. 



B. Narrative of the Survey. 



The Naval Oceanographic Office (NAVOCEANO) conducted an extensive 

 oceanographic survey of the Kara Sea during the summer and fall of 

 1965. The survey was performed aboard U.S. Coast Guard Cutter NORTHWIND 

 (WAGE 282) (Photo 1) by ten MVOCEMO scientists. The author was 

 chief scientist. This study of the Kara Sea is only a small part 

 of a continuing survey effort by NAVOCEANO in a relatively unexplored 

 and strategic area. Figure 1 denotes the NAVOCEANO Arctic surveys 

 from 1961 through 1965 and includes the Kara Sea survey. 



In addition to the oceanographic program aboard NORTHWIND, Dr. N. 

 Ostenso, two graduate students, and one technician from the University 

 of Wisconsin conducted a geomagnetic and gravity program. Their program 

 was coordinated closely with the total effort. 



Owing to the paucity of available information and the relative 

 inaccessibility of the survey area (Fig. 2), an effort was made to 

 canvass the scientific community before the survey to provide as much 

 needed data as time allowed. 



Underway radioisotope water sampling began on 18 July en route 

 from Copenhagen, Denmark, to the Kara Sea, and oceanographic station 

 work started in the Kara Sea on 25 July. A temporary halt was called 

 on 5 August and a damaged starboard shaft was replaced while the ship 



