What happened?
On 29 May 2020, a major oil spill occurred in the Taymyr peninsula of the Russian Arctic Circle, which is one of the most severe oil spills in Arctic history. The oil spill was caused by the collapse of a diesel oil storage tank in the local No. 3 thermal power plant near the Siberian city of Norilsk collapsed in the basement, which may be caused by the thawing of permafrost in the spring of 2020. President Putin expressed anger after discovering officials only learnt about the incident in social media and agreed to introduce a federal-level emergency regime.
Immediate impact
From 20,000 to 21,000 tons of diesel oil spilt on to 350 sq.meters area. Up to 18,000 tons leaked into the nearest water flows and eventually came to rivers of Ambarnaya and Daldakan, the rest soaked into the soil. The entire web of small streams around the plant is heavily affected. The total area of polluted is 180 sq.km by 4 June. A fire outbreak at the power plant on 300 sq.meters area when a car has accidentally driven into the oil flow on the service road. The clean-up could cost 100bn roubles ( $1.5bn) and take between five and 10 years. And, it is not the first time Norilsk Nickel has been involved in oil spillages.
What is permafrost?
Permafrost is referred to the permanently frozen ground, where the temperature remains under zero degrees Celsius for at least two consecutive years. Most permafrost landscapes can be recognised by the typical patterning of their surface, for example, polygons, formed by repeated deep freezing in winter. From the satellite image of the Russian Space Agency, we learned the magic works of water under cold temperature to transform our earth's landscape into ice wedges periglacial landforms.
About 55% of Russia's territory, predominantly Siberia, is permafrost and home to its main oil and gas fields. However, permafrost has been diminishing for many centuries due to the changing climate. Some 2.5 million square miles of permafrost — 40 per cent of the world’s total — could disappear by the end of the century.
What happens when permafrost thaws?
As the permafrost warms up and thaws much faster than expected, it’s changing the Arctic physical landscape as well as releasing greenhouse gases that catalyze global warming. Like our household refrigerator, permafrost stores tremendous amounts of organic matter, which cannot decompose under cold temperature due to inactive microorganism. However, if our climate continues to grow warmer, like keeping the door of our refrigerator is left open, and the organic matter starts to decompose. Consequently, the carbon will be broken down and be released into the atmosphere, which is not only carbon dioxide but also methane, which is 40 times as potent a greenhouse gas as CO2. Further, this will turn into accelerating the climate-warming process. Moreover, the melting of ground ice will reshape the arctic landscapes and settled areas, because the land surface settles unevenly where ice turns to water and streets, railroad tracks, runways, buildings, and oil and gas pipelines become damaged.
Many Questions Remain
Unfortunately, our understanding of extreme complicity of permafrost is limited. We just cannot predict what will happen next based on what’s already current known. The only way current we can do now is to undertake more precise scientific research.
In the last few years, Polar research & expedition consultancy has been led several youth polar research education programs in the Arctic for our next generation to undergo their own polar research. We really hope that this platform can cultivate more young scientists to dedicate into understanding our polar frontier and prevent such catastrophic crisis to happen again and again.
執行編輯：吳玲臻
核稿編輯：林欣蘋
