TOMSK, Nov 28 – RIA Tomsk. Scientists of Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) together with colleagues from Pacific Oceanological Institute of the FEB RAS proved that permafrost groundwater penetrates the Arctic shelf from the mainland; the discovery help to find out how this process affects the ecosystem of the Arctic seas, the press service of the university said on Tuesday.
With reference to the research associate of the TPU Arctic Sea's Carbon Research Internatonal Lab Alexander Charkin it is explained that previously there was no direct evidence of unloading (groundwater outflow from the mainland) of sub-ground water to the Arctic shelf, along with river runoff. Even there was an opinion that this is impossible because of the natural obstacle - the presence of continuous underwater permafrost.
"For the first time we managed to prove the existence of the phenomenon of unloading groundwater to the Arctic shelf ... The first anomalies we began to notice back in 2002 during research in the seas of the Siberian Arctic. In some areas we fixed colder water in the intermediate layers of sea water, but then because of a insufficient equipment it was impossible to find out what is the reason for this phenomenon", – Charkin's words are cited in the message.
It is added that in 2014-2015 in the Buor-Haya Bay (the Laptev Sea) scientists found in abnormally cold waters increased values of short-lived radionuclides radon and radium. Usually, their increased concentration is observed in the bottom waters. The scientists conducted complex geophysical work at this site and found out that there is a through talik – a section of the shelf without permafrost formed on the site of the tectonic fault.
With reference to the head of the TPU Arctic Sea's Carbon Research Internatonal Laboratory Igor Semiletov, it is reported that the strategic goal of scientists – is to conduct the large-scale research aimed at assessing the role of unloading sub-permafrost waters on the marine Arctic ecosystem and on the freshwater balance of the entire Arctic Ocean.
It is specified that the research was carried out by the scientific teams of the TPU Arctic Sea's Carbon Research Internatonal Laboratory and the Laboratory of Arctic Studies of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. So far, scientists studied in detail only one unloading zone of sub-ground water in the Buor-Haya Bay. In the near future – the expansion of the research area to the entire shelf of the seas of the Eastern Arctic.