#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. In 2024, the state permafrost monitoring system will increase by 48 wells in ten regions of Russia. The Russian Ministry of Natural Resources reported this.
“The study of permafrost is a national task. This information helps to identify risk areas and make recommendations for builders and engineers. Houses, roads and communications must adapt to the changes. The main volume of drilling work in 2024 is concentrated in Yakutia; in 2025, work will begin in Chukotka. In total, since the beginning of work on creating a monitoring network, 30 observation points have already been operating, including the northernmost point in Eurasia – on Franz Josef Land and the southernmost point in our country – in the Altai region, on the border with Mongolia. By the end of 2024 there will be 78 of them”, TASS quotes Alexander Kozlov, the Natural Resources Ministry head.
New wells are planned to be created in the Krasnoyarsk region, as well as in the Altai Republic, Buryatia, Komi, Yakutia, Nenets, Chukotka and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous okrugs, Amur, Arhangelsk and Magadan regions. This will give scientists a more complete understanding of changes in permafrost due to global climate change and will help clarify forecasts for the social-economic development of our country. The data will also help estimate greenhouse gas emissions caused by thawing permafrost.
Let us recall that about 15 million people live in the permafrost zone, and it occupies almost two-thirds of the territory of Russia.
“The unfolding monitoring system made it possible to cover the entire coastal area along the Northern Sea Route to Wrangel island. In addition, it provided information that is important to consider when designing ground infrastructure and support settlements in the Russian Arctic zone. The network of observation points will become denser in the next two years, but there are regions in which the system has been fully deployed”, said Alexander Makarov, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute director.
A background monitoring system for permafrost is planned to be created by the end of 2025 on the basis of Roshydromet’s observation points network. It should consist of 140 points. So far, the system has 30 wells, 25 meters each, equipped with sensors and a data accumulation and transmission system.
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Text: Victor Borodin, Photo: Severny Gorod MC archive
