More than sixty percent of Russia is permafrost zone. More than 15 million people live in this territory, and there is an infrastructure developed that is not found anywhere else in the world on permafrost soils.
Municipal services of northern cities and large mining companies operating in the Arctic have their own engineering and geological departments, where specialists are engaged in geotechnical monitoring, assessing the threats of violating the integrity of frozen rocks for buildings and structures, and the risks of releasing dangerous pathogens when opening animal burial grounds. Methane emissions from the melting of gas hydrates located under permafrost are also dangerous. They are accompanied by explosions and the formation of deep craters, reports ria.ru.
A unified data bank of the sea coasts of the Russian Arctic is necessary for scientific and practical purposes – for geocryological forecasts and the development of measures to prevent environmental disasters. The database “Thermal abrasion of the sea coasts of the Russian Arctic” contains information on qualitative and quantitative parameters characterizing the coasts of six seas: Barents, Pechora, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian and Bering. Almost a third of the entire coastline of the Arctic seas of Russia is subject to destruction of frozen shores as a result of thermal and wave effects, thermal abrasion.
A reconstruction of the Earth’s climate over the past 24 thousand years shows that current temperatures on the planet are unprecedentedly high for the entire period under review, and the climate is now changing faster than in any other era since the last advance of the glaciers.
In addition, the Far Eastern Federal University, together with the Pacific Oceanological Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, is creating a laboratory for digital modeling of the ocean, which will make it possible to create forecasts about the climate and conditions of the marine environment for use in shipping and fishing, reports the TASS news agency. Digital modeling will make it possible to predict what currents will be expected at what time and in what region, what temperature will be at the surface of the water and at depths.