Nature of the north


Permafrost… Is not it, sounds somewhat ominous? Imagination draws a kingdom of non-melting ice, an unassailable abode of the Snow Queen. Meanwhile, in Russia, as elsewhere in the world, they learned not to be afraid of permafrost, they built large cities on it. So, in Yakutsk there is a unique Permafrost Institute, engaged in research of this unique natural phenomenon.

Without the recommendations of this scientific center, it was impossible to build modern buildings in such cities as Norilsk, Vorkuta, and Magadan. Once they built small wooden houses, and this did not create problems. However, attempts to erect large stone structures in the beginning ended in failure: the houses “swam away” into the “failure craters” that arose under them due to the melting of permafrost. It turns out that it is not so “eternal” if the allocation of heat from an apartment building violates the age-old balance of temperatures.

The institute developed

methods to combat this evil: houses were built on piles, and now they do not fail. Pipes are also laid, because it is not safe to bury them in the ground. Initially, an attempt was made to lay the pipeline in the ground, but two or three years passed and the pipes failed, and they were not found.

Still, those who believe that permafrost is only giving people trouble and threatening permanent catastrophes are wrong. The study of permafrost greatly enriches our knowledge of the Earth, of nature. Investigating the permafrost, scientists “read”, as they say, colossal information about the past centuries, which the permafrost stores, study its relationship with the atmosphere, underground waters, and also as a thermodynamic system. And even in the field of view of specialists involved in the study of permafrost, of course, there is, of course, ecology.

North – he’s very vulnerable, after all. If you cut down trees on the border of the tundra and forest, then to restore them, it will take centuries. In Africa, the jungle on the bulldozer drove – the track at the moment will overgrow.

And if we cut off the cover with caterpillars, thawing starts immediately, small lakes are formed, which then grow, grow… It is possible to destroy the tundra inadvertently, therefore it is forbidden to ride on heavy all-terrain vehicles… So, the duties of scientists working in the Institute of Permafrost, includes the observation of nature conservation. At the same time, there is considerable interest in the question of what science can give not only to the study of permafrost, but also its very existence. Can a person use the permafrost itself? This is discussed by the director of the Permafrost Institute. In an interview with our correspondent he said: ” I can safely say that the study of permafrost is necessary: ​​it hides from us a lot of valuable information. Of course, I do not mean the extraction of gold and diamonds – here it only hinders. And what does it give? It gives cold. After all, permafrost is used as a large refrigerator. In the same Igarka, stocks of fish products are stored in the depth of permafrost at a depth of 12 meters without any additional cooling. Meat does not spoil for years at all. “


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Nature of the north