The PAGE21 project has now been officially closed. The four years of research came to an end on October 31 2015, leaving only...
PAGE21 project was featured in a plenary session "Permafrost in the 21st century" at the 2015 Arctic Circle conference in Reykjavik,...
Tuesday, 28 August 2012
Can you remember ever been without seeing trees for six weeks in a row? Those of us, who boarded the plane in Moscow in early July towards Tiksi, have now been almost two months without seeing any plants that deserve to be called more than bush.
Can you remember ever been without seeing trees for six weeks in a row? Those of us, who boarded the plane in Moscow in early July towards Tiksi, have now been almost two months without seeing any plants that deserve to be called more than bush.Few days ago few of the Russian scientists in our group borrowed a larger ship, in order to examine the runoff and the water composition of the river arms of the Lena Delta. It became a good opportunity for our group to take a trip to the town about 50 kilometers south, called Tit-Ari. The trip took roughly four hours and the modest weather on our way was quite impressive.
We saw spectacular cliffs on the adjacent mountains, which looked like layered petrified geology book, sometimes looming in pointed tips and reminding us of the Dolomites. It was a nice change to the usually flat landscape of the Lena Delta.
After having sailed for a while, we saw small groups of conifers clinging to the steep slopes on the hills outside the town. I would not call it a full-grown forest as people from Germany or from southern parts of Russia would describe a forest- but definitely something that could be called "trees". It actually reminded me a little of Christmas tree forests, which "grow" during December on Christmas markets.
We got, as the photo shows, carried away a bit by this scenery and some of us had quite enthusiastic reactions even. After we calmed down, we went on a search for gifts of nature, which can be found here around Samoylov. Some of us managed to collect large bags of mushrooms. Others started quickly fill their rucksacks with all kinds of berries, such as blueberries and redcurrants. Especially popular were the bright-orange cloudberries, of which Thomas has already told you about in the last posting from Muostakh. Once we found the right places, usually spotted on large surfaces with bright green moss, we could in a short time eat our bellies full. There were, however, still enough berries left to take home to the folks back in Samoylov.
Just before midnight, we took a speedy trip down the river again to our station, where we were expected, despite the late hour, with an excellent dinner. The following days were marked by culinary mushroom dishes and various berry desserts.
After all, the day we spent in "South" gave us very good memories because of the trees and berries and the very impressive landscape. This motivates us to carry on our scientific research for the last few days here on the island Samoylov.
Greetings from the treeless Tundra,
Max
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Main page of the English translation of the blog "Tundra Stories": http://page21.org/blogs/59-samoylov
Original German blog: http://www.awi.de/de/go/Tundra-Stories
Wednesday, 29 August 2012
If you want to understand and explain the behavior of permafrost, it is not enough to see what happens on the surface of the ground. Most exciting are the events taking place under the surface. But because one has to actually get below the surface to find out what is going on, there is no way around of digging the ground to install sensors. First, however, some preparations are necessary to make the muddy ground ready to produce scientifically usable data for years to come.
We want to research our polygon with sensors in two different locations for a period of several years and do not want to destroy the surface of the tundra during our work.
That means, like few weeks ago, that we need to install plenty of boards to make a reasonable boardwalk and the required workspace. In the center of the polygon the water level was also just above the surface when we started, so that we had to start earlier and pump large amounts of water from the area. So during our work the hum of the pump accompanied us almost continuously, to prevent our hole to become completely filled with water again.
The top layer of the soil was cut out fairly accurately with a spade and laid on a plastic sheet in order to be able to fill the entire hole back to the original as soon as possible. After that the more relaxed part of the work came, which though ended rather abruptly when we reached the bottom of the current thawing at just 30 centimeters. The spade struck on concrete solid frozen ground, which clearly had to be resorted by using harsher means: yellow gasoline powered Pico hammer drill.
In the beginning, it is quite exciting to work with the drill. The chunks of frozen soil, which you can break out with it, are namely quite large. But after some time the work gets hard on the hands and arms. Not to mention the noise and fumes. First, the drill whirls so rapidly that the tundra winds of the ground, but as soon as the hole is so deep, that the drill becomes "exhausted" on the soil surface, the acrid stench will be somewhat uncomfortable. I was born in the industrial area of Ruhr and thought to myself that it was a pretty good thing I was not born hundred years ago, because back then the colliery kept going seven days a week.
By constantly fighting against the invading water, which was removed by a pump or the good old bucket, we came to about eighty centimeters wide ice lens that no one would have expected to find there. A clear ice spreading in the ground.
All this took place under the eyes of a television crew of the Geman RBB, which will make a documentary film about the work on Samoylov and Muostakh in the coming winter. We are all already looking forward to the probably pretty weird feeling to see you working in television. Luckily the crew was not there when we had at the end of the two days fill the holes with the carefully piled soil again. A researcher, who is in a pit filled to the knees with brown mush, represents certainly anything but an elegant image.
Muddy Greetings from the tundra
Max
Max
After we had penetrated to a depth of one meter in both holes, which was done together with scientists from the University of Hamburg, we performed a thorough characterization of each recognizable soil layer. Categories such as "can be rolled out to half without breaking pencil thickness" and extensive color tables, which are used for many other things except classification of soil ensured active cooperation.
Following an extensive sampling of the various soil layers, we found out that it is quite another task to find out about the soil in the polygon, for which further laboratory tests in Hamburg and Potsdam will be necessary.
For the upper part of the polygon piercing rings are usually used, although many of the roots can only be reached by using pocket knives or Leathermans. The precious samples from the deeper frozen layers had to be broken laboriously with a chisel. Not so easy to do without breaking the whole nice chunk in the mud or contaminating the sample and making it unusable.
The most important part of the work for our group was though the installation of the sensors with which we will record in the coming years the temperatures, heat fluxes and soil water content in the smooth walls of our two wells.
As part of the PAGE21 project we added also sensors to determine the oxygen content in the soil. With these sensors can be determined, for example, precisely the areas in which the soil, the dead organic material, is converted in to methane.
TWe can be pleased to know that all the sensors do their work as planned. The new measurement field is a good fit for the long, lonely and dark winter here on the island and will record all important developments, such as freezing and thawing of the ground for us.
Greetings from the already quite autumnal Arctic
Max
Despite owning a rather big hammer and being extremely dedicated to our work, we can only penetrate the frozen ground up to one meter down.
The first hole we drilled was almost 90 cm deep of pure ice, when just few meters away we could not find almost any ice at all.
We would have liked to drill several meters, however, it seemed like drilling would cause great destruction in the "heavy ice". Because of that we tried an alternative method: exploring a three-dimensional structure of a polygon in the ground with a camera!
We installed an automatic camera on the east bank of the Lena on the island Samoilov. There, erosion has exposed a several meters high outcrops - and made drilling unnecessary.
These outcrops provide an insight into the underground structure of the polygons.
We have noted that during the summer months the ice thaws revealing the ice-sediment mixture. We decided to record this process with an automatic camera in four-hour rhythm for more than ten days and it created the video, which can be seen here.
Images of an x–ray tomography were also combined in order to reconstruct the nature of the polygon. During the time of filming, there was little precipitation, but rather high air temperatures. The film features a dynamic system in which quite a lot happens: water and sediment flow continuously down the wall and slide down major sediment components.
This "new" method occurred as very convincing so we decided to continue our series of films next year over a longer period of time and with a higher interval.
Greetings
Julia