Norilsk Nickel develops a network of wells in Taimyr to monitor permafrost

The monitoring system was created at Norilsk Nickel to assess the impact of permafrost melting processes in the Norilsk Industrial District and to manage the risks of emergency situations, sgnorilsk.ru reports.
In order to obtain more complete data in 2022 specialists drilled five 200-meter wells in all districts of Norilsk and Dudinka.
"The results were very interesting, says Giorgi Kunchulia, Head of the Adaptation Department of scientific research in the field of climate change at the Polar Branch of Norilsk Nickel. – Over 65 years, at a depth of 80 meters, there has been an increase in ground temperature by only 0.3 degrees. In 1958, the permafrost was recorded at a depth of 150 meters, and now it is 147.7 meters. But it is important that we have identified significant dynamics of thawing of permafrost soils at a depth of zero annual amplitudes (10 meters). Since the beginning of observations in 1958, the temperature has increased by 4.2 degrees. Such an increase seems to objectively describe the state of soils in the territory of the Norilsk Industrial District as a combination of factors of exploitation and the current climatic situation, and our observations record a steady trend of global warming."
Already today Norilsk Nickel specialists can calculate and evaluate the necessity and feasibility of installing heat-stabilizing systems or other technical solutions in the field of safe operation of buildings and structures on permafrost soils, the company's press service clarifies.
The next step to creating a system for monitoring the state of the Arctic permafrost is the organization of its own network of automated weather stations for solving production tasks. The company plans to equip about 15 weather stations throughout Taimyr, which will allow to systematically and comprehensively obtain data on weather characteristics: from atmospheric air temperature to wind direction and snow load.
In general, for the reliable operation of industrial facilities of its Polar Branch Norilsk Nickel implements a whole complex of geotechnical studies. Such monitoring makes it possible to identify potentially dangerous defects and deviations in advance that can lead to damage to buildings and structures or their individual elements.
Already 340 buildings and structures are equipped with special sensors that react to changes in ground temperature at the base of buildings.

Alex Shishlo for Rough&Polished