Academy of Sciences: Permafrost thawing could be major cause of oil spill in Norilsk
Over 21,000 cubic meters of petroleum products leaked at the Thermal Power Plant No. 3 of the Norilsk and Taimyr Energy Company on May 29, covering an area of 180,000 square meters and contaminating local rivers
MOSCOW, October 14. /TASS/. The natural degradation of the permafrost could be a significant factor, which caused the oil spill in Norilsk, the Russian Academy of Sciences’ President Alexander Sergeyev told an online conference on Monday.
“After the experts of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch went there on an expedition, <...> we saw more evidence that natural factors could have played a crucial role,” he said. “I mean the permafrost degradation as a factor, which had triggered the environmental catastrophe.”
The Great Norilsk Expedition
The Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences sent to the Taimyr Peninsula, at the invitation of Nornickel, a big scientific expedition to conduct large-scale examination of the area. Scientists will use the expedition’s results to present suggestions for industrial companies, working in the Arctic, on how to preserve the nature.
The expedition’s key points were watersheds of the Rivers Pyasina, Norilka and Ambarnaya, and Lake Pyasino. In August, experts from 14 research institutes of the Academy of Sciences’ Siberian Branch collected samples of soils, plants and sediments. Presently, they continue tests at the institutes’ labs.