The main purpose of the study is to get a relief of the sea bottom, “in order to prove that this is our shelf, that it’s not coming from the Canadian side”, says Director of the Institute for Arctic and Antarctic Research Ivan Frolov.
According to Frolov, the scientific research vessel “Akademik Fedorov” is now being prepared for the trip to the Arctic. The vessel is at the moment moored at a yard in the Finnish town of Turku, where it will get new equipment, including new multibeam echo sounders, RIA Novosti reports.
“Akademik Fedorov” was the vessel that carried the mini-submarine “Mir” to the North Pole in 2007, when the Russian flag was planted on the sea bottom under the North Pole.
Read also: The Russian conquering of the North Pole
The vessel will start the expedition from Arkhangelsk and then sail for some 100 days along the border of the continental shelf together with a nuclear powered ice breaker. The area that will be studied reaches from the Laptev Sea to the North Pole and from the North Pole to the Wrangel Island, making a triangle covering the Laptev Sea, the Easter Siberian Sea and the Sea of Chukotsk.
Accoring to Frolov, this is the largest Russian expedition to the Arctic in ten years time.
