After the extended New Year holidays, the first working week has finally commenced. Unlike the majority of Russians, the Polar Team of Empress Catherine II Saint Petersburg Mining University resumed its duties in the very first days of January. The intensive schedule of tasks assigned to the scientists leaves little room for lengthy rest. This season marks the start of the practical implementation of the long-term research project “Comprehensive Geological and Geophysical Studies of the Deep Structure of East Antarctica,” supervised by the University’s Rector, Vladimir Litvinenko.
«Danil Serbin and Anatoly Ozhigin arrived at Vostok Station on January 1 and immediately began their research activities. Five people—Alexey Bolshunov, Sergey Yurtaev, Vyacheslav Kadochnikov, Artem Zaprudsky, and Nina Pokrovskaya—are working on the Broknes Peninsula, about 10 kilometers from Progress Station. They have moved from the station to the drilling site, residing in a mobile living unit provided by the Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE). There, they are deploying a drilling complex and conducting experimental and methodological work on magnetotelluric sounding. Another four people—Nikita Krikun, Dmitry Ushakov, Ivan Babenko, and Ilya Shuklin—are carrying out comprehensive geological and geophysical work on the Sturnes Peninsula, several dozen kilometers from Progress Station. The entire team is currently on a six-day workweek with very long working hours, especially since daylight hours are now extended. Sunday is a day off», - said Alexey Bolshunov, Head of the "Antarctica" Geological Party.
«To the drilling site, the sled-and-tracked traverse team delivered the drilling rig, three technological containers mounted on sled bases, drilling tools, a diesel fuel tank, and a mobile living unit. This has formed a kind of field camp. Work was carried out to convert the technological equipment from transport mode to operating mode. At the rig, the walls were extended, and outriggers were installed. Additional timber supports were placed under the base of the unit to ensure stability on the Antarctic snow cover. This work took a great deal of time, as it was performed under conditions of strong winds and snowfall. The drilling mast with the crown block have been assembled. At present, commissioning work is underway to prepare the drilling and auxiliary equipment for operation», - emphasized Sergey Yurtaev, chief driller of the field team.
«Conducting magnetotelluric surveys in Antarctica is complicated by harsh physical and climatic conditions, difficulties in grounding electrodes within the snow–firn layer, and strong winds and blizzards, which interfere with a method based on measuring the Earth’s natural electromagnetic field. All subsequent stages—from data processing to interpretation—depend on obtaining high-quality field data. To acquire data on the glacier, active electrodes with preamplifiers were employed, receiver lines were extended to 300 meters, and insulated enclosures were assembled to house the equipment and batteries. Our team has now completed equipment calibration and carried out test recordings. The first high-quality resistivity curves have been obtained, enabling investigations to depths of up to 50 kilometers. We are moving toward the next stage of fieldwork and preparing to begin measurements along the planned profile», - shared Nina Pokrovskaya, Research Engineer of the SGP “Antarctica.
No less intensive is the work on the Sturnes Peninsula. The geological and geophysical team is based in the “Vityaz” residential module and began reconnaissance surveys in late December.
«The first weeks of fieldwork went well. Initially, we established stable operation of the geophysical equipment and set up a station for monitoring magnetic variations, which is necessary to account for changes in the Earth’s magnetic field during in-situ measurements. Traverses are significantly complicated by local landscape conditions—highly dissected terrain, numerous snowfields, and lakes. Nevertheless, by mid-January, nearly the entire northern part of the peninsula had been covered by an areal ground magnetic survey at a scale of 1:25,000. The main anomaly-forming objects were localized; they are represented by ferruginous metaquartzites and metapelites with individual magnetite layers. Primary processing of the acquired data has been completed, and intermediate maps of the anomalous magnetic field have been constructed to assess quality and monitor field observations», - stated Dmitry Ushakov, Lead Geophysicist of the "Antarctica" Geological Party, summarizing the interim result.
In the view of Nikita Krikun, Chief Geologist of the “Antarctica” party, work on Sturnes requires enormous effort: the team spends up to six hours just to reach and return from a route.
«This is felt especially on the way back, when the backpack is full of rock samples. Only six to eight hours remain for the route itself, which significantly slows the pace of surveying. However, the geology of this area is truly unique. The data obtained to date will make it possible to refine the geological structure of the Sturnes Peninsula and its evolution, as well as the distinctive features of the genesis of unique, rare minerals discovered within the peninsula.
In particular, in the course of geological work, 23 km of geological survey routes (at a scale of 1:50,000, with enlargement to 1:25,000) were completed in the central and the most remote northwestern parts of the Sturnes Peninsula. Boron mineralization was described in detail. Upper Proterozoic metamorphic complexes were mapped, and their geological boundaries were refined. For the first time, metabasite bodies of uncertain age were mapped in the north of the peninsula. Granitoid bodies—presumably of Early Paleozoic age and previously undocumented—were also described and sampled. A number of major fault zones and objects for specialized studies were identified», - Nikita Krikun reported.
On the one hand, such a work regime keeps the scientists in peak form and demands constant concentration. A single route can generate up to 30–40 pages of field notes—almost twice as many as a route of comparable length, for example, on the Broknes Peninsula. On the other hand, it is a challenge that makes it possible to test the professional skills of every specialist working on the Sixth Continent and to address the most important questions regarding the deep structure of East Antarctica.
Read about the results of the work at Vostok Station in the next article, coming very soon.