Two parties of scientists from Russia's oldest technical university are still unable to unite due to unfavourable weather conditions.
On Tuesday, 19 December, representatives of the Empress Catherine II St. Petersburg Mining University, who were sent to the White Continent, contacted the editorial office of Forpost to tell about the progress of their research. That part of the polar explorers, who came to the shores of the continent from Cape Town on the research vessel "Akademik Fedorov" and had time to fly to the scientific station Vostok, among other things is engaged in drilling a shallow well. According to Dmitry Vasiliev, a leading engineer at the Arctic Science Centre of the St. Petersburg university, "this is necessary to correlate direct core observations with the results of further geophysical studies."
"Despite the difficult climatic conditions, the Mining University staff, together with glaciologist Ivan Lavrentiev of the Institute of Geography of the Russian Academy of Sciences and station manager Vitaly Zarovchatsky, laid the VK-24/1 borehole as planned. At the moment its bottom hole is at a depth of 38.5 metres, the core material was lifted, processed, specialists studied its physical and mechanical properties. In addition, we have made slides to study the microcrystalline structure of firn deposits (this is densely packed snow that has not yet had time to turn into ice)," said Dmitry Vasiliev.
If last year polar explorers brought to the surface cores from a depth of about three and a half kilometres, formed hundreds of thousands or even a million years ago, the age of the cylinders selected last week is "only" a few hundred or thousand years. This means that they contain data on climatic changes that took place exactly during this historical period. Refining them on the basis of new information will make it possible to make more detailed forecasts for the future.
Studies in Antarctica have proved that for the last 800 thousand years life on Earth has been developing within the same climatic system, which implies a change of glacial and interglacial epochs with an approximate cycle of 100 thousand years. We live in a relatively warm period. But when is the next global cooling coming? Perhaps, it is the ice that was raised by the Mining University drillers that will provide a more precise answer to this question.
In addition to the construction of a shallow borehole, the task of the polar explorers also includes deconservation of the premises. Due to continuous snow accumulation, most of the buildings of Vostok station are under a thick snow layer. Including the buildings of drilling complexes of the past years, which are no longer used for their intended purpose today. But unique materials obtained during the drilling process and serviceable equipment are stored there.
"Re-conservation began with the fact that the tunnel leading to the third and fourth drilling complexes (now seasonal work is carried out in well 5G-5) was widened, and a plastic dome, previously dug out in the backyard of the station, was installed over the entrance. This allowed to get access to the premises that will be in demand after our reunion with the polar explorers "stuck" on the coast", - explained Dmitry Vasiliev.
According to Alexey Bolshunov, the head of the scientific party of the St. Petersburg Mining University, his group, which arrived at Progress station by plane just a day after the first batch of St. Petersburg university specialists, still cannot go to the East due to unfavourable weather conditions. While waiting for flying weather, the scientists concentrated their efforts on geophysical work originally planned for the return trip. They are aimed at checking the performance of the equipment under the Antarctic conditions and studying some objects of the continent.
"Mining University scientists carried out experimental and methodological geophysical work to investigate Dolk Lake in the area of Progress station. It, like Vostok, is located under a layer of ice, but, of course, much less massive. Preliminary analysis of the obtained seismograms showed that a complex wave pattern is registered here, which requires high qualification of processing specialists," Gleb Gorelik, Associate Professor of the Department of Geophysics, stressed.
Note that in 2018 there was a breakthrough of Dolk Lake, until then for many decades completely isolated from the Earth's atmosphere. A similar situation with the subglacial Lake Vostok is impossible, because this body of water lies at a depth of 3,769.3 metres beneath the Russian scientific station of the same name. Its first opening by drillers of the St. Petersburg Mining University took place on 5 February 2012, the second - three years later.