Academy of Sciences expedition to Norilsk completes field works on Lake Pyasino

MOSCOW. KAZINFORM - Collecting samples of sediments in Lake Pyasino will be the final task of the Big Norilsk Expedition’s field work, the expedition team’s leader Nikolai Yurkevich told TASS, adding the expedition would finish soon, TASS reports.

«Our five teams have practically finished their work, and now a team from [the Sobolev] Institute of Geology and Mineralogy is to take cones of sediments from Lake Pyasino,» he said.

The expedition has been lucky to work in favorable weather conditions – scientists have accomplished big works within limited time, he added.

«The works have been carried out fully, all zones of interest have been addressed, including the long trips to the Kara Sea,» he said. «Most samples have been delivered to the institutes, and testing at labs has begun.»

The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences for the first time in recent years has sent to the Taimyr Peninsula, at the invitation of Nornickel, a big scientific expedition to conduct a large-scale examination of the area. Scientists will use the expedition’s results to present suggestions for industrial companies, working in the Arctic, on how to preserve the nature.

The expedition’s key points are watersheds of the Rivers Pyasina, Norilka and Ambarnaya, and Lake Pyasino. The expedition’s term is five months – from July to November. Before end of August, experts from 14 research institutes of the Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch have collected samples of soils, plants and sediments, and later on they will make tests at labs. First results may be expected in November-December, 2020.