#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. The Polar State University (PSU) and the Moscow State University’s Geology Faculty representatives participated in the field school at the Zvenigorod Biological Station named after S.N. Skadovsky – an educational and scientific center for interdisciplinary fundamental and applied research in the field of engineering geology and geocryology.
The PSU students got acquainted with the advanced methods of engineering and geocryological research for construction in the permafrost area, which is an important topic for Norilsk. For example, with methods for determining the warming effect of snow cover.
“When developing any territory, it is necessary to know and take into account the thickness of the seasonal freezing or rocks thawing layer. Within this layer, negative cryogenic geological processes can develop, and the rock’ properties can change.
In addition to direct seasonal freezing depth measurements, this can be done using geophysical technologies, namely: the resistance method (technology of vertical electrical soundings) and the electromagnetic sounding method”, said Pavel Kotov, head of the permafrost laboratory at the PSU.
During the field school’s work, teachers and students, using modern equipment, measured snow cover indicators, the seasonal freezing depth, the soil seasonal heaving parameters at different geomorphological levels. They studied soil samples taken from drilling rigs.
“For Moscow State University it was a common practice, but for us it was a lot of new knowledge. There were no difficulties – we were helped by teachers, graduate students and undergraduates, we could turn to any of them. After the morning lecture, we went out into the field to complete the task, and then calculated the data and wrote a report”, shared a second-year student Arina Savvon.
The students will be able to apply the acquired skills when doing the same research at the test site in Norilsk next winter.
Cooperation between the Geology Faculty of Moscow State University and the PSU will continue in the summer: on July 1, the Moscow State University employees and students will come to Norilsk for ten days to conduct a set of field studies together with our university and finally select the location of the landfill. In the future, it will become a platform for research in the country’s northernmost university’s industrial partners’ interests.
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Text: Marina Khoroshevskaya, Photo: Polar State University
