China's 13th scientific expedition team to the Arctic Ocean recently laid out seven submarine magnetotelluric instruments at the bottom of the sea, for carrying out sophisticated studies on a volcanic field of Gakkel Ridge. 

Chinese scientists set off for the 13th Arctic Ocean scientific expedition aboard the Xuelong-2, the country's first domestically built polar icebreaker, from Shanghai on July 12. 

The team recovered those instruments in seven days after the deployment. 

"The submarine magnetotelluric instruments measure the electromagnetic properties of the Earth on the seabed to obtain the electrical structure of the entire lithosphere deep within it," said Shen Zhongyan, deputy head of the oceanic scientific research division under the expedition team. "The average distance among the equipment distribution is about five nautical miles, and the longest distance is 10 nautical miles. The entire span is not large, and the layout is perpendicular in the mid-ocean ridge."

According to geological structure, the mid-ocean ridge is the undersea mountain range, which is a very important feature on Earth, said Shen. 

The scientist further noted that as one of the places where the Earth's magma is generated, the research on Gakkel Ridge can play a crucial role in studying the mid-ocean ridge due to its slow expansion. 

China carried out its first scientific expedition into the Gakkel Ridge in 2021 and found a volcanic field with some initial special phenomena at about 100 degrees east longitude. 

Hence, Chinese researchers engaged in sophisticated research by laying out equipment such as submarine magnetotelluric instruments and submarine seismograph at the above-mentioned area. 

Shen said that instead of equipment deployment, the recovery is the hardest link among these operations. 

"We've now placed these instruments at the bottom of the sea. And they are self-contained, that is, the collected data will be recorded by instruments themselves. Because it is very hard to transmit a large amount of data by traversing water, so we'll retrieve instruments and then copy the collected data," said Shen. 

During the 53-day voyage in the Arctic region, the expedition team focused on two major areas – the Pacific sector and the Gakkel Ridge of the Central Arctic Ocean. They conducted comprehensive marine surveys, sea ice investigations, geological and geophysical surveys, and successfully completed scientific research and international cooperation projects with Thailand and Russia as planned.