We've just found another surprise in the cores. Deep in the Pliocene at about 240 m core depth a laminated section could be observed, but apparently of a completely new facies.
We've just found another surprise in the cores. Deep in the Pliocene at about 240 m core depth a laminated section could be observed, but apparently of a completely new facies.
Winding down the field program commonly requires some waiting time in Pevek because planes to Moscow fly only every 2 weeks. While we wait, the group is being housed on the guest floor of the Chukothydromet Station where 9 men share one room and 4 women share another; we all share one bathroom and one shower. Dr. Ivanov, our medical doc from St. Petersburg loves cooking for all of us on the 2 burner shove we share with all of the other residents on the floor,.. as we do the bathroom facilities. Despite all, the price is right. We are all looking forward to getting home. Dasvi Danya from Pevek!
We are back in lovely Pevek, once again. As we negotiate the sidewalks and visit the shops, we are met with many familiar faces and welcoming smiles. The ladies in this shop proudly displayed the Lake E poster on their wall, and were very excited to discover that we were just returning from the lake. The difference in Pevek for most of us is that there is much less snow here than during our last visit, and people seem to be out enjoying the plentiful sunlight. Families are walking, kids are biking, and puppies are sunning in the streets. We have paid visits to the museum, the Ramoushka, and the Iceberg, and our large group will continue to boost Pevek's economy as long as we remain hungry and in need of entertainment. Tonight, we had a lovely dinner made by Chefs Vladimir (Vladi and the camp doctor). Buttery potatoes and pork chops with caramelized onions and parsley and orange garnish. Yum.
The cores we collected total some 3.5 tons and they are safely stored in a reefer in Pevek in preparation for a chartered plane to St. Petersburg. The sediment cores were placed in thermoboxes to protect them from large temperature swings and they are being kept inside a temperature controlled reefer. Dummy cores in the thermal boxes will record the temperature history of the inventory. We expect the cores to complete processing through Russian customs by sometime in September.
With all of the final packing of the drill rig and science equipment complete, it was finally time for 11 of us to depart along with 4 of the Russian camp crew. So 15 of us piled all of our baggage and ourselves into the chopper and said goodbye. The chopper is just a speck in the picture as it approaches the helo pad. Most of us had mixed emotions as the rim of the crater faded from view.
One of most important assets of the project will be the Drilling system which will now become the property of the NEISRI-Magadan, Russian Academy of Sciences. They are obligated to make the rig available to ICDP projects for at least the next 5 years. Pavel Minyuk of NEISRI has worked tirelessly and to exhaustion, inventorying every part, producing spreadsheets in Russian and in English, and photographing all to make sure that everything is documented for future use.
There isn't much that is really "formal" at Lake E but we decided that it might be appropriate one night after dinner to have a formal flag ceremony to mark the end of the field campaign. The flags in camp have been a constant reminder of our international makeup and its been remarkable how much of a symbol they have become to all of us out here working hard, side by side, in three languages. Victor dropped the flags so we could recover the EBA and DOSECC flags for the trip home, but we donated the other flags to the camp until the containers are safely in Pevek next August.
With only a few days left before the arrival of the helicopter, Brady, Volker, and Addie decided to take a hike up to the top of the big mountain behind camp. It was not the perfect day (very overcast and windy) but we could see to the other side of the crater, so we went for it. On the way up, we watched a ground squirrel, who was also watching us, found many caribou tracks and horns, and lots of impact glass. We took a rather circuitous route so that we were able to walk a ridge line for a bit to get to the highest peak. After weeks of looking at the scenery from the lake (as stunning as it is), it was great to finally get a peek over the tops of those mountains, to the mountains on the other side! From the very top of the highest peak, we were up in the clouds and couldn't see much, but the ride down was quick and provided great views of camp and the lake. We mostly followed caribou trails down the steeper sections, and slid on our butts through the snowy patches.
Since arriving in late March, Addie Holland (UMass) and Kristina Brady (LacCore-Uni Minn) have been part of the infrastructure holding up the night shift on the drill rig. Since they are commonly found together in various work activities, some of the Russians blur their names into "Addiebrady". Here they are riding on top of the Vesdahot one more time for a trip to the old cabin to recover more parts of Matt Nolan's met station.
Moira Rankin and Jared Weissbrot from Soundprint have been with us for the final week of packing. They are producing IPY science programming for radio with funding from the NSF and in collaboration with Deutsche Welle, New Zealand Radio and BBC World. Coming at the end of the project they are doing a retrospective of what we have accomplished at Lake E.
In the last few days, the Lake E ice highway has seen a lot of dozer traffic. Since the second day of tear down, three dozers have been back and forth from the platform to camp - day and night - dragging all of the parts and pieces of the rig back to camp (about 3 hours round trip). The platform itself, after all the walls and roof panels were disassembled and packed into a container, was separated into 6 pieces. The larger dozer was able to tow a quarter at a time, but the smaller dozer could only tow an eighth. Between the platform pieces and the containers, those dozers know that road well! As of Tuesday night, everything from the ice pad is back at camp except for snow fence, bamboo poles, and the dreaded outhouse.. We will be out in the next couple of days to do a final clean-up and inspection.
After the mishap with all of the pipe lost down the hole at D1d, we were slightly wary that the GYGY monster might have developed a taste for steel and attempt another meal. So we kept a close eye on each piece as the casing was loaded, 2 by 2, onto the sled to make the dozer trip back to camp. All of the large pieces of equipment, including the rig itself, mud tanks, casing, pipe rack, and the big tool box were unloaded from the platform using the crane and put into containers or sleds to be transported back to camp. Many containers were packed on the ice pad and will be inventoried back at camp to be ready for shipment to Magadan via Pevek.
Demobilization of the platform took three days of hard labor to clean and tear it down. Once the tent and the walls were gone, we couldn't lunch out at the rig anymore, so we took the bus back to camp for our midday meal. We were blessed with such amazing sunshine during the tear down work, that it felt so good to just sit and soak it in. Here Grisha, Vladi, and Karsten sit on the meat box in front of the kitchen and enjoy the bright sun as it rejuvenates them for an afternoon of lifting wall panels, stacking pipe, and chipping ice.
Vladi waves from the roof of the rig as he unhitches the first corner of the tent that has covered the rig for the last couple of months. The first morning of tear down happened so quickly with everyone working together to take advantage of the beautiful weather and an energized crew. Russians, Germans, Americans, and a Canadian were working side by side with cordless drills and ladders - and the screws were flying. By lunchtime we had the tent down, the roof off, and half of the walls stacked on the ground.
Night is becoming day at Lake E -- Twilight is growing so that now our nights are not as dark as a few weeks ago. The sun goes down behind the rim of the crater about 9 PM but it doesn't get dark until nearly 11:30 and is light again by 3:30 or 4 AM. The picture here was taken around 1:30 AM and you can see 15 km (9.3 miles) across the crater; the smallest dot of light above the housing is the drill rig 7.25 km (4.5 miles) from camp. The brightly lit building on the left is the kitchen/mess hall.
