Researchers examine bottom of strange crater in N Siberia

Russian researchers for the first time have reached the bottom of the strange large crater on the Yamal Peninsula, northwest Siberia, the press service of the regional government told TASS.

Scientists went on the third expedition to the crater on November 10. They managed to take samples of the ground and ice.
It is located four kilometers away from a gas pipeline and at a considerable distance from gas fields. Human activities could not cause the cave-in, the press service said.
During the summer, scientists could not examine the bottom because ground continued to collapse in the crater.
On the last expedition, researchers reached the depth of 200 metres despite the strong wind with gusts of up to 20 m.sec.

Specialists will study the chemical composition of the samples.
Scientists say the crater may be filled with water in a few years and become a small lake, such as many others in Yamal. It is proved that some of them appeared in such cave-ins. But scientists still do not know definitely how the craters were formed, the press service said.
The next expedition is planned for April 2015.

• The chairman of the board of the Tyumen Scientific Society of the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, academician Vladimir Melnikov, said the craters were formed in Yamal in 2012 and 2013 as a result of the climate warming.

Frozen ground began to melt. At some places, it became less thick, and shale gas came out through it. Shale gas is found along the entire sub-Arctic shelf. Supposedly, it caused the formation of the crater, Melnikov said.
 http://en.itar-tass.com/non-political/759237
12/11/14
--
-
Related:

• Οι κρατήρες της Σιβηρίας λύνουν το μυστήριο του Τριγώνου των Βερμούδων;

• Ξεδιαλύνεται το μυστήριο που κρύβουν οι μυστηριώδεις κρατήρες της Σιβηρίας (Η νέα απειλή λέγεται μεθάνιο)

• Η νέα απειλή λέγεται μεθάνιο./ Ticking Arctic Carbon Bomb May Be Bigger Than Thought

Could volcanoes be causing Antarctic ice loss?

AFP - Accelerating ice loss from the Antarctic ice sheet could be due in part to active volcanoes under the frozen continent's eastern part, a study said on Sunday.
From 2002 to 2011, the average annual rate of Antarctic icesheet loss increased from about 30 billion tonnes to about 147 billion tonnes, the UN's panel of climate scientists reported in September.
The icesheet is a mass of glacial land ice -- one such sheet covers most of Greenland and the other Antarctica, and together they contain most of the freshwater on Earth.
The sheets are constantly moving, slowly flowing downhill and seawards under their own weight. Portions that extend out over the water are called ice shelf.

Previous research has blamed warmer seas swirling in a circular fashion around Antarctica for the quicker pace of icesheet loss from the southernmost continent.
These waters erode ice shelves, went the theory. And as more of the shelves disappeared, the quicker the sheet would flow and lose ice to the sea.
But in a new paper in the journal Nature Geoscience geologists led by Amanda Lough at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, suggested that, in West Antarctica, the faster flow may be also be due to volcanoes.
These heat the underside of the ice, causing melting that lubricates the flow, they suggested.
Evidence for this comes from recently deployed sensors that recorded two "swarms" of seismic activity under Mary Byrd Land, a highland region of West Antarctica, in 2010 and 2011.
Using ice-penetrating radar, the team found an intriguing elliptically-shaped deposit, measuring about 1,000 square kilometres (386 square miles) in the area, at a depth of 1,400 metres (4,550 feet).

• The deposit is believed to be volcanic ash, spewed out by an enormous eruption some 8,000 years ago -- an estimate reached on the assumption it has since been covered by ice accumulating at the rate of 12.5 centimetres (five inches) a year.

"Together, these observations provide strong evidence for ongoing magmatic activity and demonstrate that volcanism continues to migrate southwards."
Several volcanoes were known to exist in West Antarctica, but none were thought to be active.
"Eruptions at this site are unlikely to penetrate the 1.2 to two-km (0.75-1.2-mile) -thick overlying ice, but would generate large volumes of melt water that could significantly affect ice stream flow," said the study.
france24.com
17/11/13

Greenpeace: Υποθαλάσσιο λάβαρο κατά των πετρελαϊκών γεωτρήσεων .... «Φύτεψαν» μια σημαία στο θαλάσσιο βυθό του Βόρειου Πόλου (VIDEO YT)

Save the Arctic Campaigners

Οικολόγοι ακτιβιστές «φύτεψαν» μια σημαία στο θαλάσσιο βυθό του Βόρειου Πόλου, όπου κατέβασαν επίσης εκατομμύρια υπογραφές για να κηρυχθεί η Αρκτική παγκόσμιο καταφύγιο χωρίς πετρελαϊκές γεωτρήσεις, ανακοίνωσε τη Δευτέρα η Greenpeace.
Τα μέλη της αποστολής «φύτεψαν μια σημαία στο θαλάσσιο βυθό της Αρκτικής», τέσσερα χιλιόμετρα κάτω από την επιφάνεια της θάλασσας, αναφέρει στην ανακοίνωσή της η Γκρίνπις, η έδρα της οποίας βρίσκεται στο Άμστερνταμ.
Τα μέλη της αποστολής έφθασαν στο γεωγραφικό Βόρειο Πόλο έπειτα από πορεία μιας εβδομάδας και άνοιξαν μια τρύπα στον πάγο για να κατεβάσουν στο βυθό του Ωκεανού «τη σημαία για το μέλλον» και μια κάψουλα που περιέχει 2,7 εκατομμύρια υπογραφές, μεταξύ των οποίων εκείνες της ηθοποιού Πενέλοπε Κρουζ, του επιχειρηματία Ρίτσαρντ Μπράνσον και του τραγουδιστή Πολ Μακάρτνεϊ.

Η σημαία, προσαρμοσμένη πάνω στη σφαιρική κάψουλα από γυαλί και τιτάνιο, κατέβηκε κοντά στο σημείο όπου ένα ρωσικό μίνι υποβρύχιο είχε τοποθετήσει το 2007 μια ρωσική σημαία, καθώς η Μόσχα να διεκδικεί μια υποθαλάσσια οροσειρά για οικονομικούς λόγους.
Στην αποστολή της Greenpeace συμμετείχαν μεταξύ άλλων ο ηθοποιός Έζρα Μίλερ και η βουλευτής του λαού των Σάμι στη Λαπωνία, Γιοζεφίνα Σκερκ.
"Είμαστε εδώ για να πούμε ότι αυτή η ζώνη της Αρκτικής δεν ανήκει σε κανένα, σε καμιά χώρα, και είναι κληρονομιά όλων των κατοίκων της Γης», δήλωσε η 26χρονη Σουηδέζα Γιοζεφίνα Σκερκ.
Η μικρή τριγωνική σημαία με τα ζωηρά χρώματα σε ανοιχτόχρωμο φόντο σχεδιάσθηκε από μια μαλαισιανή μαθήτρια, την Σάρα Μπατρίσγια, η οποία κέρδισε το σχετικό διαγωνισμό που είχε κριτή τη μεγάλη κυρία της βρετανικής μόδας Βίβιεν Γουέστγουντ.
.kathimerini.com.cy
15/4/13 
--
-
VIDEO
 A team of young explorers, in collaboration with environmental organisation Greenpeace, have placed a time capsule on the sea bed below the North Pole. The pod contains the names of millions of people who have signed up for the protection of the Arctic against climate change and exploitation for oil and gas.
 

--

ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ:

• The Battle for the Arctic /Η αντιπαράθεση με το λιώσιμο των πάγων στην Αρκτικη

• Plateau continental arctique: la partie russe serait plus grande de 1,2 M km²

• Εφιαλτικό σενάριο για το λιώσιμο των πάγων της Σιβηρίας/Ticking Arctic Carbon Bomb May Be Bigger Than Thought

• Η μάχη για τα δικαιώματα στην Αρκτική

  ----------

• Greenpeace Arctic Expedition Plants Flag On Seabed Under North Pole

OSLO, April 15 (Reuters) - Environmentalists have placed a flag on the seabed under the North Pole to urge protection for the region in a rebuff to Russia which planted a flag in 2007 in a symbolic territorial claim.
Four campaigners, backed by Greenpeace, cut a hole in the ice at the North Pole at the weekend and dropped the flag and a capsule with almost 3 million signatures asking for the region to be off-limits to exploitation, Greenpeace said on Monday.
A Russian submarine planted a flag on the seabed in the same area, about 4,261 metres (13,980 ft) deep, in 2007 to support its claim that it has the right to any oil or mineral resources between its coasts and the North Pole.
The Arctic holds 15 percent of the world's undiscovered oil and 30 percent of undiscovered gas, according to U.S. official estimates, raising fears of a "cold rush" in the remote environment despite high costs, winter darkness and ice.
"I offer my full support to these young people who travelled to the North Pole on behalf of those whose lives are being turned upside down by climate change," South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, said in a statement.
U.S. actor Ezra Miller, one of the four people who travelled to the North Pole to drop a multi-colour flag atop a glass and titanium globe, added: "Melting ice is a catastrophe, not a profit-making opportunity."
The extent of Arctic ice shrank in 2012 to the lowest since records began in the 1970s, in a long-term trend widely blamed on manmade climate change. Several studies project that the Arctic Ocean could be free of ice in summertime by 2050.
The Greenpeace group had intended to lower the flag with a long cord. But cold complicated the plan and it was eventually cut free to sink, Greenpeace spokeswoman Anna Jones said.
Last year, more than 100 celebrities including musician Paul McCartney, actor Robert Redford and British entrepreneur Richard Branson joined a Greenpeace campaign to protect the North Pole. (Reporting By Alister Doyle; editing by Mike Collett-White)
 .huffingtonpost.com
15/4/13
--
-

Arctic ice melt hits new record

----

By CCTV correspondent Jay Gray
Scientists have released the newest data on changing conditions in the Arctic. Even though the frozen region is a long way from populated areas, experts believe changes there are already affecting conditions in many countries.

There is an almost haunting beauty to the barren fields of snow and ice. That stretch for miles across the Arctic. But scientists say the picture here is changing. The landscape slowly but steadily melting away.
Martin Jeffries, co-editor of Arctic Report Card, said,"If we are not already there, we are surely on the verge of seeing a new Arctic."
In an on-line web conference this afternoon, NOAA released it’s latest data on Arctic condition, which shows a continuing increase in water temperatures.And all-time record lows in the amount of snow and ice in the region.
Martin Jeffries said,"We are surely on the verge of seeing a new Arctic. We can expect to see continued widespread and sustained change, with new record highs and new record lows - depending on the variable you are looking at throughout the Arctic environment system."
97 percent of the ice sheet covering green land thawed this July. Another record. That area is losing ice 5 times faster than it was in the early 90s.
Jane Lubchenco, US Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, said,"We know that melting ice in green land can contribute to sea level rise around the world"
In the last two decades, those levels have grown by 20 percent. A trend that scientists say long-term could be devastating.
Thomas Wagner, NASA Cryosphere Program scientist, said,"Most of the people around the world live in coastal areas it’s where most of your major cities are because that’s where ports are and they are at sea level so even small changes in sea level rise can displace millions of people."
A group that includes more than half of the US population which lives within 50 miles of the coast.
 .cntv.cn
6/12/12
-----
ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ:

• Η μάχη για την Αρκτική ξεκίνησε/ The Battle for the Arctic

• The Battle for the Arctic /Η αντιπαράθεση με το λιώσιμο των πάγων στην Αρκτικη

• Το αρκτικό στρατηγικό άνοιγμα για τη ΝΑ – Μεσόγειο.

3. Διάλεξη του Νίκου Λυγερού με θέμα:
"Νέες στρατηγικές -- προοπτικές της ΑΟΖ".
Αντωνιάδειος Στέγη Γραμμάτων και Τεχνών Δήμου Βέροιας.(VIDEO)

The Battle for the Arctic /Η αντιπαράθεση με το λιώσιμο των πάγων στην Αρκτικη

 

 ----

Fault Lines looks at the potential environmental impact of resource extraction in the Arctic, and what that might mean for the people who live there.

The UN has imposed a 2013 deadline for the submission of scientific claims to the Arctic seabed. It is the precursor to a resource boom which would see Canada, the US, Russia, Norway and Greenland all attempt to exploit the region's resources.


These Arctic countries are desperately mapping out their territories so they can tap into the fossil fuels and minerals locked beneath the fast melting ice.
And with global warming speeding up the melting of the Polar ice caps, potential shipping routes are opening up - raising concerns about oil spills, and control over these new passageways.
Fault Lines’ Josh Rushing heads to the Far North to see first-hand how Arctic countries are responding to the potential bonanza.
.aljazeera.com
16/11/12
---

ΣΧΕΤΙΚΑ: 

• Plateau continental arctique: la partie russe serait plus grande de 1,2 M km²

  • Greenpeace-Aktivisten protestieren gegen Gazprom-Ölförderungen.... Zeitgleicher Protest in Berlin und Moskau

• Απόβαση στον Βόρειο Πόλο

• Πολιτική αντιπαράθεση για το λιώσιμο των πάγων στην Αρκτικη

• Αρκτική χωρίς πάγους βλέπουν οι επιστήμονες την επόμενη δεκαετία

• Γεωτρήσεις βόρεια της Αλάσκα. Η Shell ανεβάζει τον πυρετό του μαύρου χρυσού στην Αρκτική

• AΡΚΤΙΚΗ: ΑΝΗΣΥΧΙΑ ΓΙΑ ΤΟ ΠΕΡΙΒΑΛΛΟΝ ΚΑΙ ΤΙΣ ΠΛΟΥΤΟΠΑΡΑΓΩΓΙΚΕΣ ΠΗΓΕΣ

• Το αρκτικό στρατηγικό άνοιγμα για τη ΝΑ Μεσόγειο.

  • EXXON MOBIL: Υπερβολικοί οι φόβοι για την κλιματική αλλαγή

    • Γροιλανδία: Σοκάρει η συρρίκνωση των πάγων τον Ιούλιο

      -----