10 May 2021

Congratulations to RGS 2021 Grant Award Winners

Three MPI teams have been awarded the Russian Geographical Society 2021 Grants. The project “Atlas of Taryns (Gigantic Icings) in Northeast Russia” led by Dr. Vladimir Alekseev will summarize the existing knowledge and collect new information on gigantic icings, a unique phenomenon of the coldest remote regions of Russia. It will examine the geographical distribution of icings, their seasonal and long-term dynamics, as well as their role in landscape development and human activities. Icing volumes and associated hazards will be assessed. The project, titled "Tukulans: Fossil Relicts of the Ice-Age Deserts in East Siberia" (PI: Dr. Alexey Galanin), will involve investigations on geography, landscape, geology and biodiversity of dune fields in the basins of the middle Lena, middle Vilyui, Tyung, Linda and Chara. The project’s expected outcome is an illustrated book for general public. The purpose of the project led by Olga Makarieva, PhD, is to compile a water resources atlas of Magadan Province, summarizing recent data on the water balance and hydrological regime of the region, as well as to predict future changes in hydrological characteristics based on mathematical modeling and climate warming scenarios.

A tukulan along the middle Lena River.

An icing in central Yakutia.

10 March 2021

Nikolay Grigoriev’s Booklet on Igarka Permafrost Translated into English

The booklet “Cryo-Hydrogeological Features of the Igarka Region” published in Yakutsk in 1992 by N.F. Grigoriev, a prominent Soviet & Russian permafrost researcher, has been translated into English by Dr. Nikita Tananaev, who also provides some updated information and new photographs from his several years of research work in Igarka. This booklet is a unique description of permafrost distribution and groundwater occurrence in the Northern Yenisey region, surrounding the city of Igarka, a former capital of the Soviet Arctic development.

Climate change affects the regional environment, and international research teams aim at studying, explaining and forecasting expected changes in the Arctic landscapes. In this scope, this booklet can guide the research by providing both historical data and current state descriptions to future researchers working in the Northern Yenisey region, a fragile permafrost environment highly susceptible to the ongoing climate warming.

The booklet is available for reading and downloading at:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ERTPvO6Bx0FpX_nzx_ouKFX_SO0_avKI/view?usp=sharing

Dr. Nikolay Grigoriev (1911–2005)

27 April 2021

Seminar Announcement

On 28 April 2021, a seminar of the MPI Laboratory of Engineering Geocryology will be held for preliminary discussion of a PhD dissertation by Ivan Vakhrin titled “A Method for Determining Physical Characteristics of Soils in Homogeneous Mass Based on Thaw Consolidation Behavior”. This study is supervised by Georgy P. Kuzmin, D.Sc., and is scheduled for public defense later this year. The seminar will be held over Zoom.

Time: 28 April 2021, 14:30 Yakutsk time
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89684718966?pwd=cytTcmFaa2NqMURZUVM1Yi85V1FWQT09
Meeting ID: 896 8471 8966
Access code: 12345678

Ivan Vakhrin in the permafrost lab.

Test setup.

27 February 2021

Fifth Gavrilova Readings Held at MPI

On 25 February 2021, the Fifth Gavrilova Readings were held by MPI. Over 40 participants met in a hybrid online/offline format to discuss climate change effects on natural and human-affected geosystems in permafrost regions. The morning round-table session honoured the late Prof., Dr. Petr P. Gavrilyev who would have had his 85th birthday recently. His outstanding contributions to environmental studies of northern agricultural lands were highlighted by the keynote speaker, Dr. Alexander Fedorov. This was followed by discussion of current issues and gaps in addressing climate change effects on permafrost terrain. The afternoon session commemorated the research and legacy of Prof., Dr. Maria Gavrilova, an internationally recognized scientist for studies on climate – permafrost relationships. Discussions centered around the keynote by Kyunney Kirillina, North-Eastern Federal University, concerning regional climate modeling using different GCMs.