Wayne State geology student heads to North Pole for unique research opportunity

The USCGC Healy's artic cruise plan

Katie Krupp is about to embark on the trip of a lifetime. This week, the Wayne State University geology student will board the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker USCGC Healy along with a team of international scientists bound for the North Pole.

Throughout the 10-week research trip, Krupp will collect various water samples in order to measure radioactive lead and polonium levels in the Bering and Arctic seas. Krupp's research is part of the U.S. Arctic GEOTRACES Expedition, an international effort to study trace metals and elements in the global ocean.

"This research will help to establish the physical and biogeochemical processes that regulate the distribution of these isotopes in the Arctic," Krupp explains.

Although her studies in Wayne State's Department of Geology have taken her to many places, Krupp says this North Pole expedition is by far the most adventurous. "We get a lot of opportunities to work in the field in our department, so I've measured trees in all kinds of different forests, collected soil samples, mined for minerals, waded through creeks and marshes, cored sediments and more, but nothing like this."

To learn more about geology at Wayne State, visit clas.wayne.edu/geology.