Karpinsky Institute's South Popigai Gravimetric Party successfully completed field surveys

In the harshest weather conditions - frost down to -50, metre-thick snow cover and strong winds - the experts of the South Popigai Party have fully completed the planned gravimetric survey at a scale of 1:200,000 of 3,800 square kilometres. The survey was carried out in the Popigai and Sergeevsky areas of the Olenek Ulus, Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).

The 11-member party included 5 employees of the Karpinsky Institute. As last year, the party was led by Ilya Zelenukhin, leading engineer of the Gravimetric Party of the Centre for Deep Geophysics.

Apart from the weather conditions, one of the difficulties of the field party was to finish the survey before the thaw began. It was necessary to return to the geological base in the village of Talakhtakh before the thaw on the river ice. In other words, the whole survey had to be completed in 10 weeks. And they did it on time! The equipment from the field camp has been transported by helicopter. Now the experts are starting the desk work phase.

The gravimetric survey in this region is planned until 2025-2026. Work in the region began last year, when 3,000 square kilometres were covered.