UNIBO Chooses MIDLAND's G18 PRO for a Greenland Expedition

Will the G18 PRO help find a clean energy source?

The University of Bologna's DeepCarbon Lab is heading to Greenland, equipped with the G18 PRO provided by Midland, a high-quality portable transceiver known for its durability and reliability in extreme conditions. The G18 PRO features a robust waterproof structure certified IP67, shock resistance compliant with MIL-STD 810G standards, a high-visibility backlit LCD screen, and a long-lasting 1600mAh battery, ensuring effective and secure communication for the expedition team even in the harshest environmental conditions.

At the edge of the Greenland ice sheet, the mission aims to search for rock samples containing traces of geological hydrogen. In a new vision of life formation on this planet, geological hydrogen could be an energy source for primordial life forms and, at the same time, a clean, yet-to-be-understood energy source for human activities.

The team, consisting of four scientists from the University of Bologna, a researcher from the Institute of Geosciences and Earth Resources of the CNR, and a researcher from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, will explore a southwestern region of Greenland, hoping to find clues about the formation and circulation of natural hydrogen in rocks nearly two billion years old.

The mission is part of the ERC (European Research Council) Deep Seep project, relying on five-year funding. The project aims to uncover the genesis of natural H2 at great depths and high pressures and abiotic light hydrocarbons (different from "fossil" hydrocarbons, which are of biological/biotic origin), particularly methane (CH4), through interactions between deep rocks and geological fluids in the Earth's crust. Evidence of these processes can be found in rare ancient outcrops brought to the surface by tectonic movements, such as in Greenland, Mongolia, or North America.

The researchers will move on a boat within the fjords near the village of Nanortalik, which in Inuit means "where polar bears go." Given the remote location of the mission, the expedition relies on an innovative satellite system allowing constant communication via phone and internet data. Conducting geological surveys in these polar regions will take work, with temperatures hovering around 0 degrees Celsius.