USCG icebreaker reaches North Pole

On Sept. 5 the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Healy, an icebreaker used for Coast Guard missions and polar research, became the first U.S. surface ship to reach the North Pole unaccompanied, the Coast Guard has announced. It was only the fourth time a U.S. surface vessel had reached the pole, and the first time since 2005, the Coast Guard said.

The Healy set out for the North Pole from Dutch Harbor in the Aleutian Islands on Aug. 9, carrying a team of scientists participating in the Geotraces program, an international initiative studying the geochemistry of the world’s oceans. The Healy’s expedition, funded by the National Science Foundation, is studying the Arctic Ocean, making baseline measurements of the chemistry of the air, ice, snow, seawater, meltwater and ocean bottom sediments.

The Coast Guard says that the 16,000-ton, 30,000-horsepower Healy can break through sea ice more than 10 feet thick.

- ALAN BAILEY