The Greatest Polar Expedition of All Time

Starred review from February 28, 2022
Rex, the head of atmospheric research at the Alfred Wegener Institute, vividly captures 2019’s MOSAiC polar expedition in this show-stopping account. In September of that year, the icebreaker Polarstern set sail from Tromsø, Norway, to spend a year monitoring and measuring conditions in the Arctic Ocean; the mission involved hundreds of scientists, technicians, and crew members. Rex, the director of the project, recounts it in diary format, describing the logistics of finding a suitable ice floe thick enough to support the weight of their equipment, polar bear encounters, and ever-shifting conditions. Research successes large and small come along the way, as when one team had an “amazing” ice coring day, and Rex has a knack for vivid and startling imagery. (On the myriad ice formations, “One looks like a huge mushroom, another like the teeth of a mighty Arctic monster frozen in the ice.”) His conclusion that immediate action is needed to preserve the Arctic ice won’t be a surprise, but his point that any changes to that effect will need to be relevant and have broad support is well made. This is required reading for anyone interested in seeing science in action.

April 1, 2022

Rex (atmospheric research, Univ. of Potsdam) writes a fascinating account of MOSAiC, the world's largest Arctic expedition--the culmination of a decades-long international collaboration to put scientists in the Arctic for a full year and collect data during polar winter for the first time ever. The idea was to deliberately trap a ship within an ice floe to float with the Arctic ice and gather year-round measurements about the impact of climate change at the poles. Led by Rex, MOSAiC's Polarstern icebreaker set sail in mid-2019 with high hopes, but potential disaster loomed on the horizon. Rex's expedition diary catalogues the day-by-day events of the entire undertaking. Between diary entries there are diversionary essays on all aspects of the Arctic (polar bears; types of ice; how an icebreaker works) to help readers understand this environment. The format mirrors memorable 19th-century expedition diaries (e.g., Fridtjof Nansen's account of an attempt to reach the North Pole; or the survey of the Pacific Ocean by the United States Exploring Expedition)--first-person accounts combining science with sentiment. VERDICT For those who like reading about the North Pole or oceanic expeditions in general, this is a title that should not be missed.--Laura Hiatt

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