Researchers of the Moscow State University have created a database "Thermoabrasion of the seashores of the Russian Arctic", which contains information on qualitative and quantitative parameters characterizing the shores of six seas: Barents, Pechora, Kara, Laptev, East Siberian and Bering.

Thermoabrasion is the destruction of frozen shores as a result of thermal (thermal) and wave action. Almost a third of the entire coastline of the Arctic seas of Russia is subject to this process. To date, researchers from various scientific groups have published a lot of data on the destruction of the shores of the Arctic seas in various regions of the Russian Arctic. However, only the geographers of Moscow State University for the first time collected all the available knowledge into a single database "Thermoabrasion of the seashores of the Russian Arctic".

"Forming a database, the geographers of Moscow State University combined literary, archival and information obtained as a result of their own observations, which reflects the magnitude of the retreat or, conversely, accumulation (that is, "build-up") of the coast for various parts of the Russian Arctic over the past century," the report says.

The database allows you to analyze the spatial and temporal variability of the rates of coastal retreat along the Arctic coast of Russia, compare the rates of coastal destruction with various environmental features - lithological composition of rocks, geomorphological level, as well as hydrometeorological parameters - the duration of the ice-free period, annual sums of positive and negative air temperatures, the frequency of storms.

In the future, MSU geographers plan to supplement and expand the database in order to understand in more detail how the coastline of the Arctic seas changes over time.

The prototype of the domestic universal weather station for climate monitoring in the Arctic has successfully passed all field tests that were conducted during the year in the conditions of the Far North in the Tomsk region. The next stage of work is the creation of technology for the industrial production of stations, said Vladimir Korolkov, deputy director of the Institute for Monitoring of Climatic and Ecological Systems of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
In 2018, scientists of the Institute for Monitoring Climatic and Ecological Systems of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, together with Sibanalitpribor, began developing the first domestic weather station that will be able to measure wind speed and direction, air temperature and humidity, atmospheric pressure, intensity, amount, types of precipitation, solar radiation intensity and snow cover height in Arctic conditions using acoustic, optical and radiation methods. At the same time, the development, unlike existing analogues, should work completely for a year without human intervention, use solar energy to charge batteries and have protection from Arctic fauna. The prototype of the station was manufactured in 2020, after which its field tests began.
Korolkov clarified that scientists are now preparing to start the next stage of work - the development of a prototype, the technology of industrial production of the station. Negotiations are underway with potential investors who are ready to invest in development, search for funds to enter the market.
Earlier, Korolkov reported that Russian weather stations still employ people who carry out the necessary research manually and transmit this information to the processing center every 3 hours. It is unprofitable to purchase foreign automated weather stations due to the high price, they also require expensive maintenance, have limited functionality and do not have protection from animals.

Scientists of the Federal Research Center for Integrated Arctic Studies of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences have proved that processes on the mid-Ocean ridges of the Arctic Ocean affect the seismic activity of the Arctic shelf, Novaya Zemlya and the north of the East European Platform, and this activity should be taken into account when developing minerals and building engineering facilities, said Galina Antonovskaya, Head of the Department of Seismology.

The phenomenon is caused by the spread of tectonic stresses that create an additional load in the lithosphere. The process is called deformation waves or "perturbation transmission". "These processes can serve as a trigger of seismicity. The disturbance moves and activates the process of releasing seismic energy. As a result, one area becomes more seismically active, then another," Antonovskaya said.

At the same time, earthquakes occur where there are some weakened areas: faults or discontinuous disturbances. The source of deformation waves are tremors in large tectonic faults in the earth's crust, which are characteristic of mid-oceanic ridges, where the process of pushing apart lithospheric plates occurs.

Galina Antonovskaya explained that there is not much data on the seismicity of the Russian part of the Arctic. To understand the processes that occur in the earth's crust, it is necessary to develop a network of seismic stations. Information about possible earthquakes is needed to build maps of seismic zoning. Such documents indicate the maximum possible earthquake intensity for a given area. There are several types of maps: for mass construction, for objects of increased responsibility and especially responsible objects, and separately for nuclear facilities.

During the extraction of hydrocarbons on the shelf, so-called induced seismicity may occur - that is, the extraction of oil or gas leads to the occurrence of earthquakes. "For example, in the North Sea, when active hydrocarbon production began at Ekofisk (Ekofisk is a gas and oil field in the Norwegian sector of the North Sea, 350 km northeast of the village of Teesside), an earthquake with a magnitude of 4.1 occurred," Antonovskaya noted. - The bottom has settled, and huge funds have been invested in restoration work, including well repairs. Oil platforms were raised to avoid flooding and a special concrete wall was built to protect the oil storage from waves."

It is also necessary to take into account the possibility of earthquakes when laying pipelines along the bottom of the Arctic shelf. "Even a small earthquake in intensity, but occurred in the area of laying the pipeline, can lead to its rupture. An ecological catastrophe is inevitable," she added. "Therefore, it is important to study in detail from a seismological point of view the nature of each earthquake that occurred in the Russian sector of the Arctic, in order to avoid negative consequences after the start of oil production."

Volunteer students of the Clean Arctic project participating in an environmental clean-up in the Yakut village of Tiksi have already collected about 70 tons of scrap metal, and for all three days of the project's launch mission it is expected to collect up to 300 tons of metal and 250 cubic meters of other waste, the head of Yakutia Aisen Nikolaev said.

"In Yakutia, the Arctic territories account for more than 80% of scrap metal accumulations. Cleaning the coast of the Arctic Ocean from rusty barrels and metal structures is a task that can only be solved by the combined efforts of government, business and the volunteer community. Without "general cleaning" in the Arctic, the importance of which the President of the country has repeatedly drawn attention to, it is impossible to talk about new standards of quality of life for people living and working here," Nikolaev said.

He said that in total, within the framework of the Clean Arctic project, about 100 thousand tons of scrap will be exported from the Arctic regions of the republic over the next five years.

"This will require not only to assemble it locally, but also to create a collection and transportation system - from reception points to logistics issues. The first batch of cargo collected by volunteers with the help of local residents in Tiksi will be delivered by barge to the Nizhny Bestyakh railway station, from where it will be sent for melting," the head of Yakutia said.

The construction of the Northern Latitudinal Passage is expected to be completed in 2027.

"The total cost of the project is currently estimated at about 0.5 trillion rubles, construction is expected to be completed in 2027," the report said following a meeting in Salekhard led by Russian Minister of Economic Development Maxim Reshetnikov.

According to the chairman of the State Duma Committee on Control and Regulations Olga Savastyanova, the Northern Latitudinal Passage will connect the Northern Railway with the Northern Sea Route through the port of Sabetta. This will improve logistics and open up new markets for companies that are considering investing in projects for the development of mineral deposits located in Komi.

The Northern Latitudinal Passage is a 707 km long railway project that will connect the Northern and Sverdlovsk Railways and will make it possible to export cargo from new deposits in the northern regions of the Yamal Peninsula. The projected volume of transportation by the USC will amount to 23.9 million tons of cargo per year, the bulk of which will be, in particular, transportation of gas condensate. The project will also speed up the transportation of container cargo.

The creation of a single brand for the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation will increase the tourist attractiveness of the territory on the international market. This opinion was expressed by the head of sales for the Russian domestic market of Coral Travel Larisa Kiseleva.

"One of the national brands offered on international markets, in my opinion, should be the Russian Arctic," she said at the first Russian travel forum "Travel!".

In her opinion, the most promising regions of the Russian Arctic for promotion are the Murmansk Region, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug and the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug. A single brand, as Kiselyova noted, will increase the attractiveness of the Arctic for tourists, as well as affect the economic development of all the constituent entities of the Russian Arctic.

First of all, the Arctic brand can be used to promote cultural and educational routes, says Maya Lomidze, Executive Director of the Association of Tour Operators  and co-chair of the expert Council on the implementation of the program for the promotion of tourist routes in the field of domestic and inbound tourism at the Federal Agency for Tourism.