#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. Research is being conducted by a student group from Moscow and Polar State Universities in the city areas where active mechanized snow removal or storage is taking place. Students in Norilsk are now studying areas of snow accumulation, their extent and thickness. Young researchers are also studying the effect of snow accumulation on the ventilated crawl spaces of houses.
Valery Grebenets, head of the Moscow State University student group, candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences, began researching snow deposits in Norilsk area back in 1989, after a fairly long period he returned to this problem in 2019 and now, together with the PSU, he continued his work .
The practical result of the joint work of students from Moscow State University and PSU should be information for a preliminary forecast of the temperature regime of frozen soils, in particular, how artificial and natural accumulations of snow affect permafrost and engineering objects. The reports will display scientific conclusions and individual practical proposals on the state of frozen soils in individual blocks of the city. This information can be used to prevent permafrost thawing and potential deformation of individual buildings.
“Research conducted at the Norilsk field school can provide new data on snow deposits in the region and find practical application in mathematical modeling of the temperature regime of soils near buildings and structures”, says Pavel Kotov, the PSU research center director.
The results of research in field schools are planned to be used to create digital 3D models of permafrost polygons with an assessment of the soils temperature regime. Without data on snow cover, which is currently being studied by the two universities’ students, creating such models is almost impossible.
In addition, information will be systematized on the location of snow dumps in the city and what impact they have on the permafrost temperature regime. These data will make it possible to calculate the snow accumulations impact on the permafrost state in these places. This information can be used by the Nornickel company, which took an active part in organizing this field school, as well as in the development of engineering protection of buildings and structures in Norilsk.
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Text: Denis Kozhevnikov, photo: Nikolay Shchipko
