Under-ice mapper. Commissioned in 1966, the U.S.S. Queenfish was a nuclear-powered attack submarine, the first in a new class designed with additional abilities for sailing under ice. The Queenfish had upward-looking sonar that could map the jagged underside of Arctic ice and rudders and control surfaces that were reinforced to break through thin ice without damage.
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Two-part mission. The Queenfish set off in late July 1970 on a mission to survey the undersea Arctic. Although far smaller than the Atlantic or the Pacific, the Arctic Ocean is six times the size of the Mediterranean Sea but still relatively unexplored because of the constantly changing ice cover, which averages 10 feet thick. For the second half of the voyage, the submarine explored the continental shelf off Siberia, within the 230 miles of shore that the Soviet Union claimed as territorial waters but outside the 12 miles that the United States recognized. To avoid identification by the Soviets, all markings on the submarine including the number were removed.
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Thinning ice. This view through the periscope on Aug. 3 was typical: ice and water. The first half of the Queenfish's journey retraced most of the path that the U.S.S. Nautilus took in its historic 1958 trip to the North Pole, the first vessel to travel there under the ice. Alfred S. McLaren, the Queenfish's commander, wanted to compare the ice conditions of 1970 with those 18 [sic] years earlier. The ice had, on average, thinned 28 inches between those two voyages.
The date 1958 is correct; it's the math that's wrong.
1970 - 1958 = 12 years. The Nautilus route is red #5 on this map. [link]
The ice had thinned an average of 28 inches in a 12 year period!
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A cold swim. A team of scuba divers swam in the 29.5-degree water to take photographs of the underside of the ice. Winds and currents cause ice floes to pile up on each other. Later analysis showed that the ice within eight miles of the North Pole was, on average, 13 feet thick. In parts, where the ice floes piled up, it was close to 58 feet thick; in other spots, where the ice had been pushed aside, there was open water.
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Soviet glaciers. After departing the North Pole, the Queenfish surveyed a volcanic ridge, then headed to the Siberian coast. Here is a periscope view of glaciers on October Revolution Island.
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