In just a few weeks, in early December, the polar team of Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University will depart for the Sixth Continent.
The route is traditional. A flight from St. Petersburg to Cape Town, then a passage aboard the research expedition vessel “Akademik Fedorov” from Cape Town to Progress Station. Forpost spoke with the head of the university’s field team, Alexey Bolshunov, about the tasks facing the party this season and what fundamentally distinguishes it from previous years.
- This year, the number of expedition participants has increased from 8 to 11. It seems this is a record. What accounts for this growth of the team?
- Yes, it is a record, which is explained by the increase in the volume, nature, and level of the work to be carried out in the 71st Russian Antarctic Expedition. Moreover, a number of these tasks will be performed for the first time. Our team will include both experienced polar explorers and promising young researchers taking their first steps in science. This approach allows us to conduct investigations at a high level while simultaneously training the next generation of researchers in real climatic and mining–geological conditions. According to the plan, nine people will remain at Progress Station, and two will set off for Vostok Station on a sledge-tractor traverse.
- What tasks have been set for you by the leadership for the upcoming season?
- Most importantly, starting this season, the long-term scientific project of the Mining University, “Comprehensive Geological and Geophysical Studies of the Deep Structure of East Antarctica,” begins to be implemented, aimed at studying the deep structure, geological evolution, and fluid-dynamic regime of typical lithospheric structures. Its scientific supervisor is the university’s Rector, Vladimir Litvinenko.
This multidisciplinary project requires the participation of scientists representing entirely different fields of knowledge. Within its framework, the Scientific Geological Party “Antarctica” was created, and a Field Team formed, whose members will, in accordance with the program, begin research at the polar stations.
The main work is connected with Progress Station, where a group of geologists, geophysicists, and drillers will continue the complex of geological and geophysical work begun last season. Additionally, two major experimental–methodological tasks are planned, involving the testing of the magnetotelluric sounding method and core drilling under the mining–geological and climatic conditions of the station area.
- Last year at Progress, a direct search was conducted for a site for the drilling rig, and several promising locations were identified. Will drilling take place this year? Has the rig already been sent? Is it a domestic or foreign manufacturer?
- This year, the University purchased a drilling rig, drilling tools, auxiliary equipment, and a vehicle required for drilling research boreholes. All are domestically produced—“Almazgeobur,” “EZTAB,” “Antravers-Service,” and “Vezdekhody Burlak.” The expedition cargo is now aboard the research–expedition vessel Akademik Fedorov, bound for Antarctica.
Preparation for drilling was carried out in advance. It was led by the Mining University’s leading specialist in core drilling—the head of the Department of Additional Professional Competencies and Drilling Technologies, Vladimir Klimov. He proposed a technology for core drilling of glaciers and subglacial rocks that minimizes environmental impact. Experienced drillers as well as young specialists actively assisted him. They must now, at Progress Station, assemble the drilling complex into a single system—comprising the main rig and various auxiliary equipment—carry out the necessary start-up and commissioning, and verify the operability of individual assemblies and of the entire complex. This is a very large volume of work, and high-quality execution will allow trouble-free drilling in subsequent seasons.
- What is the main goal of the drilling?
- To better understand the genesis and evolution of East Antarctica. Core will be taken from ice, basal ice, and subglacial rocks; geophysical well surveys will be conducted; and long-term monitoring of the glacier’s and bedrock’s thermodynamic parameters will be performed. All this will provide the necessary data for fundamental metageological research.
- In addition to the search for a drilling site, last season, geological and geophysical traverses were carried out, during which a tectonic scheme was constructed, and features of the geodynamic evolution of East Antarctica were refined. Will these studies be continued this year?
- It is premature to speak about refining the features of East Antarctica’s geodynamic evolution. Only the first results have been obtained on detailing the tectonic structure and chemical composition of rare-metal pegmatites of the Broknes Peninsula. It is necessary to confirm the identified patterns on the remote Stornes Peninsula, where this year the main geological and geophysical work will take place—from sampling oriented rock specimens to areal magnetic surveys. Geological and geophysical work at Progress Station this season will be led by Nikita Krikun, Assistant of the Department of Historical and Dynamic Geology, and Dmitry Ushakov, Lead Engineer of the Scientific Center “Arctic”.
- For what reason was it decided to conduct experimental-methodological work using the magnetotelluric sounding method in Antarctica? Have foreign colleagues already applied it?
- One of the priority areas of scientific research on the Antarctic continent is the study of its deep geological structure—metageology—and magnetotelluric sounding offers the greatest depth of investigation. To date, foreign scientists have conducted about 20 different magnetotelluric surveys. However, not all the data obtained are of satisfactory quality, because the Antarctic region has a number of features that complicate geophysical work by this method and affect the reliability of the results. University staff summarized the global research experience, identified the factors that negatively affect the acquisition of quality data, and determined ways to minimize the influence of these factors. All of this was taken into account in preparing for the expedition. Responsible for this part of the program will be Nina Pokrovskaya, representing the laboratory “Modern Technologies for Prospecting and Exploration of Mineral Deposits.” She will become the first woman polar explorer from the Mining University! Nina Nikolaevna is a unique specialist in magnetotelluric sounding technology with extensive field experience in hard-to-reach regions of the Russian Federation. For example, I worked with her in Buryatia, near the settlement of Ozerny.
- One of the grants is devoted to mapping rare-metal pegmatites during field geological work. The topic is very relevant and interesting. Could you elaborate a bit?
- Pegmatites are a special group of rocks that form under specific conditions. In the area of Progress Station, they appeared more than 500 million years ago during the collision of the Indian and Antarctic lithospheric blocks, when ancient rocks began to melt at high temperatures. The newly formed mobile melts sought tectonically weakened zones in the Earth’s crust; intruding into them and cooling, they formed entirely new rocks—pegmatites. Today, these rocks serve as a kind of “window” into the geological past of the Earth. The analysis of rare minerals within them makes it possible to reconstruct the temperature, depth, and dynamics of magma formation, as well as to refine the geological history of entire regions.
- What will be happening at Vostok Station?
- Assistant of the Department of Well Drilling, Danil Serbin, for whom this will be the sixth expedition, and design engineer of the Scientific Center “Arctic”, Anatoly Ozhigin, for whom this is the first trip to Antarctica, will go there.
They will carry out research aimed at creating new and improving existing technologies for drilling glaciers, in particular, the technology of mechanical drilling of the snow–firn layer with bottomhole cleaning by air, and the technology of thermal drilling with simultaneous well enlargement. Experimental studies will be conducted on test stands developed by the team itself with the active participation of the Department of Technical Drawing and Descriptive Geometry, the Department of Drilling, and the Scientific Center “Arctic.” These units were manufactured by the instructional–experimental workshops of our university.
In addition, Serbin and Ozhigin, together with the staff of the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute (AARI), will take part in maintenance work on the main and auxiliary equipment of the drilling complex named after Professor Boris Kudryashov.
- Obviously, reports on fieldwork in Antarctica form the basis of scientific articles and PhD dissertations for the polar explorers. What has been the success in this regard following last season?
- The results of work in the 70th RAE season at Vostok and Progress stations are reflected in articles, including in the 2025 special issue of the Journal of Mining Institute devoted to research work in Antarctica. Patents have been obtained for technical devices for conducting drilling and research work in Antarctica. Work on dissertations is underway. But the main point is that the large Antarctic project has begun to be implemented. The scientific community engaged in it—from veteran professors to young graduate students—supported in their work by staff from many university units, is growing every day and will undoubtedly achieve significant success in both fundamental and applied research. Thus, the work of those who were among the first in Antarctic research—Professors Boris Kudryashov, Nikita Bobin, Alexander Shkurko, Nikolai Vasiliev, Eduard Zagrivny, Valery Chistyakov, and many others—will be continued.