Field Notes
During, before, and after the field course, Polaris students and faculty share their thoughts through journal entries.
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Bugs, Aii-ee!
Slapping, clapping, waving, scratching—these are common, if not constant signals of life in Siberia.
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First Impression
I spent the last two days in the field with Allison, Sam, Andy, Becky, and Eli collecting samples and measurements for the terrestrial survey.
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The Carbon Bomb
Just a couple of meters beneath this visible surface the ground is frozen solid down some 1,400 meters. This is permafrost.
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We Arrive, Finally
We’ve traveled better than halfway around the globe, through fifteen time zones, twenty hours in the air, nearly as many waiting in airports, and now we’re here, delighted, if disoriented.
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The “Aquatics International”
While we were processing a water sample that was taken earlier this morning from the Kolyma River, we talked an interesting mix of broken English, Russian and Swedish/Norwegian.
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Converged in Cherskiy
We celebrated the fourth of July with a toast to our Russian hosts and all have a solid night of sleep on the barge.
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travelling
Privyet friends of the Polaris Project! I’m sure you’ll all be pleased to hear we’re alive and well and only moderately exhausted.
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What will 2011 bring?
What will this year be like? If I had to believe the weatheronline prediction it will be 15 degrees (Celsius!) and rain for the first few days we're there.
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22 Converging Dots
In less than 2 days 19 of us will converge on Dulles Airport in DC, and then fly together to Moscow where will link up with the other three participants (two from Russia and one from Switzerland).
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bugs
Nikita casually mentioned that the mosquitoes this year are "as severe as they can be."
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On the way to the hardware store
I got into the car, turned the key, and the first words that came out of the radio speaker were "Pleistocene Park."
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Welcome to the Polaris Project
“I didn’t think anyone went to Siberia willingly,” a friend replied when I told him I was going there with the Polaris Project.
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It may be Snowmageddon in the Lower 48, but what about the Arctic?
While the US has seen an unusually cold winter so far (with several large snowstorms battering New England as well as sweeping across the nation), you may wonder whether the Arctic is also experiencing anomalously cold temperatures. Here in Worcester, Massachusetts, we happen to be digging out of 48.4 inches
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Photo Essay: Ambarchik
Ambarchik was a Soviet prison camp (gulag) beginning in the 1930’s. This place has a sad feeling to it, perched on the edge of the world, the Arctic Ocean to one side and the treeless tundra to the other. It is now the site of a new tragedy: as the
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