First Preliminary Report

"Arrived safely home in Sweden on April 5th (2003) after a very succesful visit to Tristan" says Svante Bjorck in his first letter to me.

Unfortunately there was no opportunity for us to send regularly reports regarding the project "Atlantis" - just short messages to our near and dear relatives back home.

In the early weeks of the expedition the weather was not kind to them, so the acting administrator James Glass asked for assistance regarding reliable forecasts for the coming days. During a 2 week-period forecasts were made at the Swedish Met Office which could advice them for a safe visit to Nightingale (highly appreciated).

"Incredible experiences - well above expectations" says Svante. Two cores of good quality - the one from Nightingale looks extremely promising - were taken (the first from Bottom Pond on Tristan).

Below you will find the participants of this Expedition. From left: Svante Bjorck(leader) - Karl Ljung (Ph.D. on the project) - Dan Hammarlund - Ole Bennike

Climbing up to Bottom Pond.

The crater lake - Bottom Pond

From Bottom Pond we retrieved 4.75 metres of sediment.

The first results from this core shows that the expected sedimentation speed of 1cm/year was doubled - so the core is just about 2000-2500 years old in the bottom part than the expected ~4500 years.

Below some images from Nightingale.

Tristan da Cunha from distance.

Inhabitants on Nightingale.

A former lake on Nightingale - the goal for the expedition.

Workers from distance - behind the camera James Glass.

One of the cores - with help from The Strongest Man on TDC a further 1.4 m core was achived!

The results from this expedition will be published in 2005-2006.

All photos by Svante Bjorck.

Nov 9, 2004