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Expedition to Severnaya Zemlya, Laptev Sea returns to Arkhangelsk

Severnaya Zemlya is the most hard-to-reach archipelago in the Russian Arctic, where ice retreats from the sea around islands only in September, allowing researchers to go ashore

© Lev Fedoseyev/TASS

TASS, October 23. The Ivan Petrov research vessel, which took geologists to the Severnaya Zemlya and the Laptev Sea, returned to Arkhangelsk, the Northern Department on Hydrometeorology and Environment’s Director Roman Yershov told TASS.

The ship left the port of Arkhangelsk on October 10.

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"The Ivan Petrov, which worked with the ocean studies institute [S. Gramberg All-Russia Scientific Research Institute for Geology and Mineral Resources of the Ocean] in the Laptev Sea and on the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago, has returned to Arkhangelsk," Yershov said.

It was the first voyage the ship made following an overhaul, which took two months. The ship was built in Finland in 1989 for oceanic, meteorological, hydrochemical, biological and environmental studies in Russia’s inner seas. For those purposes, the ship is outfitted with five laboratories and elevating systems. The Ivan Petrov has an unlimited navigation zone, including in ice conditions.

The expedition’s first part was limited to the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago, where the geologists were searching for possible oil and gas resources.

Severnaya Zemlya is the most hard-to-reach archipelago in the Russian Arctic. In September, the ice retreats from the sea around the islands, and researchers may go ashore.

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