Susan R. Eaton at Salisbury Plain in South Georgia which is home to a colony of 300,000 King penguins. Photo Credit: Stephen Henshall, UK
Ammonite’s Calgary-based Senior Geoscience Advisor, Susan Eaton, geologist, geophysicist, journalist and polar explorer, was named by the Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s (the RCGS) as one of Canada’s top modern-day trailblazers. Canada’s 100 best explorers list, published in the June 2015 issue of Canadian Geographic Magazine, was determined with the help of the Fellows of the RCGS. In its selection process, the RCGS looked for world and national firsts, and individuals who have made significant and lasting impacts in their fields.
Canada’s greatest modern-day explorers are astronauts, deep-sea divers and polar adventurers. They’re also paleontologists, historians, conservationists and photographers.
“It’s hard to find one who fits the classic ‘new lands’ definition (think Champlain, Mackenzie, Amundsen or Shackleton),” said the RCGS. “But with every new expedition, adventure, field-research breakthrough, environmental effort and invention, this living generation is questing to better our geographic and scientific knowledge of Canada, Earth and everything beyond.”
“What an incredible honour to rub shoulders with Elon Musk of Tesla Motors, environmental scientist and journalist Dr. David Suzuki, space shuttle astronaut Dr. Roberta Bondar, international space station commander, Chris Hadfiled, and movie-maker and ocean explorer, James Cameron,” said Susan R Eaton, founder and leader of the Sedna Epic Expedition, which is comprised of an international team of female ocean scientists, snorkelers, divers and explorers. In 2017, on Canada’s 150thanniversary, Team Sedna will launch a snorkel relay of the 3,000-kilometre-long Northwest Passage to document disappearing sea ice in the Arctic. “I’m humbled to join the ranks of these preeminent explorers who are pushing limits, and redefining the way Canadians explore new places, peoples and species,” added Eaton.
From the Antarctic to the Arctic, Eaton explores the ocean in the snorkel zone, a unique land-sea-ice-air interface where large animals interact with snorkelers. In July 2014, Eaton led a RCGS-sponsored, ten-woman team on a proof-of-concept snorkel expedition, from Labrador to Greenland. During snorkel relay trials—in pack ice and bergy bits along the northern Labrador coast and in the 9,000-foot-deep waters of the Davis Strait— the sea women travelled 35 kilometers in less than 12 hours, demonstrating that the Northwest Passage is firmly within the their grasp. Using mobile touch aquariums and ocean-going robots, Team Sedna delivered its innovative ocean outreach program in Nain, Labrador, bringing the ocean to eye level in this predominantly non-swimming Inuit community.