NSU Geologists became participants of the Arctic Floating University expedition and spent nearly a month on board of the research ship «Professor Molchanov». The member of the expedition, the paleomagnetologist Nikolai Mikhaltsov, told about the uneasy work on Novaya Zemlya and further plans for cooperation with the Floating University.
The Arctic Floating University is a scientific and educational project on the study of Arctic territories through the conduction of marine expeditions. For the duration of the project, the research ship «Professor Molchanov» becomes the Floating University. The organizers of the project are the Northern (Arctic) Federal University named after MV Lomonosov. Lomonosov Moscow State University (NARFU) and the Federal Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring Service of the Northern Federal District.
The expedition was held under the motto «Discovering the Secrets of the New Earth». It was attended by 55 people, among whom were both Russian and foreign researchers. Russia, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, Canada, Brazil - this is the multinational company for this year.
From the Novosibirsk State University on a board of the «Professor Molchanov» to the Arctic were departed an employee of the laboratory of geodynamics and paleomagnetism of the Central and Eastern Arctic, paleomagnetologist Nikolai Mikhaltsov, graduate student — Victor Abashevi, a master student of geological and geophysical faculty of NSU — Denis Avdeev.
—There were representatives of various scientific directions on the ship, both natural-science and humanitarian: hydrometeorologists, oceanologists, climatologists, ornithologists, soil scientists, entomologists, as well as historians and sociologists who surveyed residents of villages in the far north, and even economists. All the participants of the expedition were divided into teachers, and each of them was responsible for the scientific and educational block on their subjects, and students. Students were distributed in blocks. Practical work (sampling by geologists, bird counting by ornithologists, etc.) was conducted during landings on shore. «On the sea» teachers took turns lecturing in their areas, and attendance of lectures was mandatory for everyone, regardless of the chosen specialization, says Nikolai Mikhaltsov.
Specialists of the Novosibirsk State University took part in the expedition of the Floating University for the first time. The work, which is conducted on board the «Professor Molchanov», is usually associated with the study of various aspects of the Arctic of today or the past.
— We study the magnetization of the ancient rocks, the so-called paleomagnetism. It is well known now, that large areas of the earth's crust, tectonic plates are in motion. With the help of paleomagnetic data, it became possible to reconstruct the face of the Earth, as it looked hundreds of millions of years ago, to determine the mutual position of the ancient continents and oceans. But for the territory of the Arctic such data amount is slight. Fieldwork during the expedition, mainly, consists in the selection of a vast number of samples from the outcrops, which have retained the magnetization since its formation, — says Nikolai Mikhaltsov.
With the samples collected during the expedition, the scientists have conducted a series of laboratory experiments and measurements, which result in the determination of the latitude on which the magnetization was acquired (in other words, the ancient northward direction), and thereby restore the location of the rock many millions of years ago.
During the expedition, the geologists of the NSU conducted research in the northern part of Novaya Zemlya: in the Russian Harbor, in the bay of Maka, the Gulf of the Inostranzev and at Cape Zhelaniya. Experts have selected more than 80 samples, which, after some laboratory procedures, will provide information about the position of the New Earth about 500 million years ago.
Besides, geologists have identified areas for paleomagnetic study in future expeditions and collected samples for museum expositions.
