These include obtaining new fundamental scientific knowledge in such areas as geodynamics, geothermics, hydrogen genesis, and some others. They are necessary, among other things, to understand the processes associated with climate change.
On Thursday, October 28, Rector of St. Petersburg Mining University, Vladimir Litvinenko held a working meeting with representatives of the university, who will go to Antarctica. He wished them good luck and set a number of tasks, the implementation of which will not only confirm the superiority of our country in the study of the White Continent but also give a reliable answer to the question about the causes of natural disasters on the planet.
“Mining University should keep the priority in the work of drilling at Vostok station, which allows obtaining unique ice cores several hundred thousand years old. After all, through their study, we can learn what events were happening at that time in the Earth’s atmosphere and what consequences they led to. This in its turn gives material for predictions about climate change in the future. But your task is much broader. It’s to do interdisciplinary research. For example, together with environmental specialists. And to obtain reliable scientific results, which will give us new knowledge,” Vladimir Litvinenko said.
He noted that the scientists of the university during the short season, which will last until the end of the Antarctic summer, should also assess the state of scientific equipment of the “Vostok” station and understand which technical means can be counted on and which require modernization or complete replacement. In addition, the rector drew attention to the fact that this year, for the first time in a long while, despite the lack of funding from the state, seven scientists of the university are going to the Sixth Continent. Four of them have no experience in polar stations, so one of the tasks is to help them with acclimatization.
“You have great prospects for scientific growth and self-realization,” he said to the young polar explorers. “You can enrich mankind with new knowledge. For example, about geodynamic processes taking place in the planet’s interior and about the reasons that influence the thermal balance of the Earth’s surface. Working conditions in the harsh climatic conditions of Antarctica are comparable to man’s stay in space. However, further study of this continent is of great practical importance for all mankind, and therefore we should continue our research.”
Alexey Bolshunov, head of the Boris Kudryashov Fundamental Research Laboratory “Technologies and Techniques of Drilling Wells in Vostok Station Conditions” thanked the rector for his support. And he stated that all the representatives of the university, who are leaving for the 67th Russian Antarctic Expedition, are set up for serious, hard work and intend to justify their confidence. Part of them will leave St.Petersburg on Monday, November 1, on the board of the vessel “Akademik Fedorov”. The rest will go in December.
Let us remind that in 2012 Russian scientists were the first who managed to penetrate lake Vostok, located at a depth of more than 3700 meters below the ice of Antarctica, and took water samples from it. The uniqueness of those is due to the fact that this body of water has been isolated from the Earth’s atmosphere for millions of years. Scientists of our university back in the late 1960s had developed appropriate drilling technologies and created equipment based on them, which at the time was a breakthrough. And then, for half a century, not only рфв ерун improved it in laboratory conditions, but also personally supervised the course of drilling operations, annually participating in Russian Antarctic expeditions.
