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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.
© РИА Томск. Павел Стефанский
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.