4 July 2012
Wow! After a really long flight with a re-fueling break in Tura (not too common for a plane!) we arrived in Khatanga. The time change of 6 hours left many pretty zoned, but we still unload all the gear, get it to the hotel, and grab dinner before we settle into our hotel rooms. Work today involved 1) splitting our field gear out from the glaciology group, 2) buying and packing up food supplies, and 3) sorting our personal gear. My team of five is ’lean ’n mean’, very efficient and finished with the job in no time – WE ARE READY TO GO!
Personal stuff.
6 July 2012
We arrive by chopper to our first base camp on the Buotankaga River and it is blowing a gale as we assemble our kitchen tent for the first time. All goes well – our tents are nestled in a small depression and there is no indication of our troubled future… It seems that we have chosen the reindeer migration highway for our camp site and we see hundreds of animals passing by.
Base camp 1.
7 July 2012
Here we are! The team and a typical Arctic field day – from left to right, RS, XZ, VP, AP, AS. This is my first team with a majority of women!
The team.
8 July 2012
Work begins with a vengeance – we have done a massive 23 km hike to the Triassic section and now we have to pay! The blister brigade is born…
Blisters.
9 July 2012
What a day! Not only did we trace the major thrust fault (older Devonian grey limestone thrust over younger reddish Triassic sediments), but we saw the elusive wolverine too!
Thrust fault.
10 July 2012
The best geologic exposure we have seen so far. Fifty meters of steeply dipping shallow marine sediments marking the edge of the Siberian craton about 270 million years ago. The section is intruded by Siberian trap magmatism which was a HUGE volcanic event 250 million years ago and may even have caused the Permo-Triassic mass extension!
Late Carboniferous-early Permian.
11 July 2012
What a night – we can hardly believe it! A tremendous wind storm (with a little rain thrown in) lasted throughout the night… This site suffers from strong and variable wind! Our tents were clapping like thunder, so I looked outside to check on the kitchen tent – lo and behold, the kitchen tent was DOWN and so were 4/5 of the personal tents! This was at 3 am; we secured things as best we could given the gale was still blowing. At 5 am, we were all out in our rain gear re-securing – saturated ground does not hold the tent stakes at all well. At 7 am, conditions remained unchanged. At 9 am, the same; at 11 we were able to re-raise the kitchen tent, but remained on high-alert regarding the wind and all the tents. Finally, the wind drops in the afternoon and we are able to get some rest!
Tent blowout.
12 July 2012
Action on the tundra continues despite the weather! We spend the day on the Triassic, a group of terrigenous sediments (land deposits) likely to contain information regarding the age of the rock units exposed from which these sediments were derived.
13 July 2012
Some days are a delight and some days are pure slog, but dinner is always welcome. No matter what, we are always happy to gather and eat a warm meal. Our dinners are of a high standard and seem to just get better and better – see what we can do with the most basic of kitchens.
Jing’s perogi.
14 July 2012
Good weather and mega-millage today. We hiked south to the distant limestone in order to evaluate the tectonic contact there. What a pity the river was too high to cross and all we could do was look at it from afar! Was it worth the inflamed Achilles tendon?
Faulted limestone.
15 July 2012
Another day in the Triassic… XZ got a lot of samples for her thesis today, but that means a lot of weight in the backpack – it’s a good thing she is strong and fit!
Triassic conglomerate.
16 July 2012
We have done >110 km in 8 days of hiking and our feet need a rest, so we take an ‘office’ day. It is also our first truly sunny day, so we get to wash socks, shampoo our hair, etc. – the usual things that need dealing with in addition to science. As a bonus, AS takes his pole and goes fishing at a nearby lake. AP helps carry the fresh Arctic char home for dinner – it doesn’t get any better! Alina wants to do a PhD in geology – maybe in Sweden!
Fish!
17 July 2012
Our last geology day at Base Camp 1 – a short trip to the youngest part of the section we will see. We have seen some great structures on this trip (like the deformed limestone in the picture). The usual samples collected for provenance, thermochronology, structural investigations, etc. All our samples will later be shipped to Stockholm, and then the lab work will begin (see www.tmrg.geo.su.se for more information on analytical methods to be used).
Deformed limestone.
18 July 2012
We expect to relocate to Base Camp 2 tomorrow, so today is used to prepare for the move, i.e. – packing food supplies for loading onto the helicopter, burning refuse, etc. There is always a lot to do when evacuating a camp…
Flowers.
Vicky Pease, Stockholm University