The 15 researchers on the floating research station “North Pole-37” (NP-37) must be evacuated from the station due to the threat of shifting ice floe, RIA Novosti reports.
NP-37 was set up in the Arctic Ocean in the beginning of September 2009 and was supposed to work until September 2010, but a powerful ice stream has been steadily moving toward the station posing an imminent threat.
The 15 people and two dogs stationed on the five times six kilometers large ice floe have prepared to be evacuated. Most of the scientific work at the station has stopped.
The station is currently located at 80 degrees North 143 degrees East. This is the third time in the history of the Russian polar research stations that a station had to be evacuated before schedule.
The first scientific drifting ice station in the world, “North Pole-1” was established in May 1937. Since 1954 Soviet “NP” stations worked continuously, with one to three such stations operating simultaneously each year, according to Wikipedia. In the post-Soviet era, Russian exploration of the Arctic by drifting ice stations was suspended for twelve years, and was resumed in 2003.
