University sends meteorite expedition to Antarctica

12:03, March 19, 2015

UrFU Scientists will study the meteorite fields of the Wohlthat Mountains

Meteorite expedition, organized by Ural Federal University and led by Professor Victor Grokhovsky will be held in December as a part of the 61st Russian Antarctic Expedition (RAE).

On March 18, UrFU rector Victor Koksharov announced the intention of the university to support the expedition at a press conference, which was held in the headquarters of Interfax agency in Moscow.

We would like to remind, that the organizer of the RAE is Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute of the Federal Service for Hydrometeorology and Environmental Monitoring of Russian Federation in cooperation with the St. Petersburg Institute of Nuclear Physics. RAE is the successor of the Soviet Antarctic expedition, which was created in 1955.

Ural Federal University will be represented by 6-8 scientists, who will investigate the meteorite fields of the Wohlthat Mountains located in the area of "blue ice" in 100 kilometers from the station "Novolazarevskaya".

Today the name of Victor Grokhovsky, Professor of UrFU Institute of Physics and Technology the Ural Federal University, is known not only outside Ekaterinburg but even outside Russia. In February 2013, UrFU meteorite expedition was the first to study fragments of the meteorite Chelyabinsk. The expedition has been led by Victor Grokhovsky for more than a quarter century. In  2013 Victor Grokhovsky was among the top 10 people of the world of science, according to the journal Nature.

 “Antarctica is a storehouse of space material and a variety of ores in general, - says Victor Grokhovsky. - There are 'blue ice' territories, which in fact are glaciers, rearing over rocks due to the movement of ice on the mountain slopes; they have been moving very slowly, but for millions of years. Powerful winds from the coast blow away the snow, sublimating ice. And in these ice there are a lot of meteorite fragments, which had been reaching the surface of our planet over the millions of years; you can just go and collect them. Lunar soil is literally “free” material, which is as old as our planet, and is about 4.5 billion years old. Imagine how much you can learn about the origin of the universe, life, its natural laws and, therefore, the future of our planet!”

Ural Federal University is ready to finance the expedition, while expressing interest in the partnership support of the project.