Microphones dropped into ocean off Greenland to record melting icebergs

Scientists and an artist are using underwater microphones to record the sound of melting glaciers.

The hydrophones record sounds for two years before being used to harvest data and turn them into acoustic compositions.

The instruments are being lowered to different levels and temperatures to record earthquakes and other disasters.

Siobhn McDonald said that what he heard in the hydrophones was a snapshot of time. A time capsule is what it is.

In the Davis Strait, there are five moorings with hydrophones and 12 moorings in all.

McDonald wants to incorporate the recordings into an acoustic installation that explores the impact on the ocean. She will create works based on the trip.

I would like to hear the pollution. Sea levels are rising and that will have an impact on the sound range and all the other flora and fauna. Animals in the ocean and the north rely on sound. Communication, breeding, feeding and survival are all dependent upon hearing. We need to pay attention to the pollution we are causing to the environment.

Funded by the US National Science Foundation's polar programme, a 21-strong team of researchers from Europe, the US and Canada has been at sea for four weeks. The material will be used in works of art.

The expedition experienced strong wind, rain and snow at the same time as the glacier's break. The researchers are going back to Nuuk on October 22nd.

There is growing evidence that the sea level will rise due to the melting of the ice cap.

According to a recent study in the journal Nature Climate Change, fossil fuel burning will cause a minimum rise of 27 cm. A study done last year found that a large part of the ice sheet was on the verge of melting even if global heating is stopped.

McDonald said that she had seen less ice during her last visit to the island. One of the tipping points I am working with is the collapse of the Greenland ice cap.

She said that marine life seemed to be adapting. The life up high in the north is still doing well. The sea is alive with possibilities even though it looks barren. Some of the hydrophones from the other expedition looked like aliens. Plants and Lichens were living together.

The exhibition at the Model, an arts centre in County Sligo, will feature McDonald's research on the release of methane from melting permafrost, as well as the similarities between Irish peatlands and glaciers.

The European Commission, the Arts Council of Ireland, Trinity College Dublin, and the non-profits GLUON and the Ocean Memory Project supported McDonald's project.