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,...
Herschel Island 2013: Grizzly which likes to disturb
(Photo S. Weege) George giving a fantastic field partner at the slump and its mud channel in bear country Thursday, 16th of July 2013
Weather stations are no scratching poles! So today I gave up. Or is it really giving up? I found today my weather station again on the ground with some brown bear fur.
It seems like someone doesn´t like the weather station on his lemming dinner plate in the tundra, or wants to get rid of his winter fur by scratching himself on the chicken wire on my weather station.
In any case, George and I decided to give the bear more space and set up the heavy weather station inside the slump, just in front of the head-wall.
Perhaps this will be better than on top of the tundra.
So now we won´t get the original temperature anymore right on spot, which will affect my water discharge measurement correlations. But it will be still interesting to get the microclimate inside the slump, where it is usually warmer, and calmer.
(Photo S. Weege) Boris and George about to set off for their survey trip around the island I will also use the data from the park's weather observations at Simpson Point. I just don´t want to build up my weather station a fifth time in less than 10 days, and risk an encounter with an itchy grizzly bear.
For George it was it an extra-long day. He only got a couple of hours sleep after cruising around Herschel Island for fourteen hours on the boat.
He and Boris collected shallow seismic data along transects all around the island, and returned at 6:30 am!
With northeasterly winds, waves increased rapidly, and it made for a rough ride to camp, especially after they had left the Workboat passage which separates Herschel Island from the mainland toward the south.
(Photo B. Radosavljevic) The sun does not set over the remaining ice yet. Photo from Boris and Georges trip around the island Fortunately they made it back safely, with a lot of data. One transect along the west coast is over 8 km long, and it took them more than two hours to survey.
It is difficult to keep the boat going in a straight line for so long, luckily George is a great boat pilot.
Now it is again 10 pm, and Ute and Jule just started making a fantastic cake for Boris' birthday.
The party will be followed by an extra hot sauna, and good music.
Everyone tries to soak in the heat, and rid themselves of his muscle soreness and back pain, after hiking for days over the uneven tundra, with all the grass tussocks and heavy equipment, or sitting still for hours in the boat, or drilling the permafrost cores.
(Photo: S. Weege) Jule and the freshly made birthday cake for Boris Yesterday the core barrel got stuck, and it took more than 6 hours to get it out.
It took six people digging with spoons to free the core barrel.
Hope you’re enjoying warm summer days at home!
We are experiencing stormy winds.
Walking back from the slump today felt as if the wind was trying to make us dance Lambada!
Written by Stefanie and Boris