Sakhalin researchers explore snow cover on Kola Peninsula
© RIA Novosti. Mikhail Mordasov

Sakhalin researchers explore snow cover on Kola Peninsula

A study of the Kola Peninsula' snow mantle has, for the first time, been conducted by a team of researchers from the Lava and Landslide Processes Laboratory at the Sakhalin branch of the Far Eastern Geological University of the Russian Academy of Sciences, TASS reports. The results of the study will help forecast spring floods and avalanches, said chief of the laboratory Nikolai Kazakov.

"Our study spanned an area from the northern coast of the Kola Peninsula to the Khibin Mountains. We took unique data on the structure of the snow mantle from varying topographical types on the peninsula," Mr. Kazakov said, adding that this was first large-scale study of this kind in the Murmansk region.

The results are valuable both in terms of science and practical economic and industrial applications, including the prediction of spring floods, avalanches and water-snow flows.

The study was part of the "Exploratory Fundamental Research Expeditions in the Interests of the Development of the Russian Arctic" program run by the Russian Academy of Sciences. Its specific goal was to work out tools to perform stratigraphic analysis of snow cover in unexplored areas and create a lithological and stratigraphic map of snow cover in Arctic territories.