The Ukrainian icebreaker Noosfera arrived at Akademik Vernadsky station. The vessel delivered the Ukrainian seasonal expedition team, as well as members of the First Mexican Antarctic Expedition.
The journey from Punta Arenas, Chile, to Vernadsky took five days. The usually stormy Drake Passage was relatively calm.
“We’re moving as if on a perfect highway: no obstacles, just speed and space,” is how geophysicist Yurii Otruba described the Drake crossing.
He is a member of the Ukrainian seasonal scientific team, which also includes biologists, geologists, and oceanographers. Their main task is collecting samples in various environments and setting up new equipment.
Another group of the season are technical specialists who will be carrying out urgent repair work at Vernadsky.
The Mexican expedition includes four geologists. Together with our scientists, they will collect rock samples both on land, from the islands surrounding the station, and from the bottom of the Southern Ocean. This is necessary to reconstruct paleobiogeographic and paleoclimatic conditions and climate fluctuations in the ocean.
As a reminder, collaboration with Mexican colleagues became possible due to the Memorandum between the National Antarctic Scientific Center and the Mexican Agency for Antarctic Studies (AMEA), signed this summer.
While travelling on the Noosfera, the foreign guests first tried Ukrainian cuisine, which they really liked. So, during their time in Antarctica, they might learn a few recipes to take back home.
Noosfera not only delivered expeditions but also provided research on the way to the station.
Thus, Ukrainian oceanographers first launched multibeam echo sounder systems into the ocean to read the bottom surface at depths of up to 12 km with a resolution of up to 25 cm per pixel (which is cooler than satellites!). The echo sounder can also “see” up to 500 m below the bottom.
“These are the eyes for our marine geological work,” the scientists noted.
The vessel is scheduled to be unloaded in the coming days, as well as the start of new areas of work at the station.
See photos of Noosfera‘s first voyage to Vernadsky this season, as well as the meeting of Ukrainian winterers with seasonal team and Mexican colleagues.
As a reminder, the Noosfera‘s fifth Antarctic season began in mid-October of this year. The vessel has already delivered cargo and the expedition team to Arctowski Polish Antarctic Station.
Photo: Yuriy Shepeta, Yevhen Shatalov, Roman Glushchenko, Nataliia Dikul, Rafael Lopez and Deja Kajetan.
