Russian scientists will return to studying the permafrost on Gydan Peninsula at research sites in the Yamal-Nenets Autonomous Area after a 25-year break, reports the regional government press service. A previous research station, earlier used by scientists, was shut down in 1991.

On August 5, members of the research team sailed from Salekhard aboard the Mekhanik Kalashnikov. They will land in Antipayuta and will take a helicopter to a research station on Lake Parisento. The scientists are carrying drilling equipment for comprehensive geo-cryological studies.

The team wants to reactivate a comprehensive geo-cryological research station near Lake Parisento to establish permafrost monitoring sites and look for archeological  sites.

The expedition involves scientists from the Center for Arctic Studies, the Institute of the Earth Cryosphere at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Trofimuk Institute of Petroleum-Gas Geology and Geophysics at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Institute for Water and Environmental Problems of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

"Yamal scientists and their colleagues from research institutes at the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences will have to reactivate wells and drill new ones. This is necessary to open the research station and pave the way for long-term study," said Alexei Titovsky, director of the autonomous area's department for science and innovation.

Apart from geologists and permafrost experts, the research team includes archeologists and one geographer. Scientists from Tyumen are also working in the villages of Gyda, Gaz-Sale and the township of Tazovsky under the five-year Gydan Peninsula research program.