Third Forum for Young Permafrost Scientists 

24 June – 13 July 2013 Yakutsk, Russia

The Third Forum for Young Permafrost Scientists organized by the Melnikov Permafrost Institute (MPI) consisted of a geocryological conference and a field workshop. The Forum commemorated the 140th birthday of the founder of geocryology, Mikhail Sumgin (1873-1942).

The geocryological conference was held at the Melnikov Permafrost Institute in Yakutsk, Russia, from 24 to 27 June 2013. It was attended by 76 participants, including school, undergraduate and graduate students, as well as early career scientists, from Lomonosov Moscow State University, North-Eastern Federal University (Yakutsk), Tyumen State Oil and Gas University, Tomsk Oil and Gas Research and Design Institute (TomskNIPIneft), Chita State University, Tomsk State University, Research Institute for Engineering Site Investigations (Moscow), Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics (Novosibirsk), State Hydrological Institute (St. Petersburg) and Institute of Geography, Mongolian Academy of Sciences (Ulaanbaatar). In total, 35 oral and 5 poster papers were presented at three sessions: (1) Regional and Historical Geocryology, (2) Climate, Hydrogeology, Geochemistry, Geothermics and Thermal Physics of the Permafrost Zone, and (3) Engineering Geocryology.

The GEOCRYOLOGICAL FIELD WORKSHOP from 29 June to 13 July 2013 was based at the Tompo field camp of the North-Eastern Federal University in the southern Verkhoyansk Mountains and focused on mountain permafrost with five main topics: (1) Paleogeography and glaciation; (2) Periglacial processes and forms (slope processes, solifluction, patterned ground, thermokarst, frost cracking, frost heaving); (3) Hydrology and hydrogeology (mountain streams, springs, icings); (4) Ground temperature regime; and (5) Roads on permafrost. The Field Workshop had 34 participants. Activities included field trips guided by leading specialists on workshop topics; discussions on a proposed international geocryological monitoring network in the Tompo field camp area; and establishment and instrumentation of observation sites to monitor microclimate, ground temperatures and cryogenic processes.