RESEARCH IN THE SOVIET ARCTIC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000600340864-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 16, 2011
• Sequence Number: 864
• Publication Date: September 25, 1950
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600340864-5
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SOURCE V Tsentre arktik.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
RESEARCH IN THE SOVIET ARCTIC
The folloxing are extracts of pertinent information selected
from ft. ft. Zubov's "In the Center of the Arctic."
Zubov made a reconnaisance flight over the Kara Sea in late May 193 to
check the state of the ice before the beginning of Arctic navigation. This
flight laid the groundwork for the nox compulsory prenavigation ice surveys
of all Arctic seas. In late August 1946, Zubov flex across all seas of the
North Arctic from the Kara Sea around Cape Chelyuskin to the Chukchee Sea
and back.
A Soviet air expedition led by 0. Yu. Shmidt xith four heavy planes and one
light plane left Moscow, 22 March 1937, and landed on Rudolph Island, 18 April.
The ice on Rudolph Island is a natural landing field for planes.
M. V. Vndop'yanov reached the North Pole on 21 May 1937 and landed at 89
26 latitude and 282 longitude. Polar Station No 56 began operations.
Later, planes floxn by V. S. Molokov, A. D. Alekseyev, and I. P. Mazuruk
landed. All planes returned 6 June, leaving I. D. Papanin, director; P. P.Shir-
shov, hydrobiologist; Ye. K. Fedorov, astronomer; and E. T. Krenkel', radioman.
Polar Station No 56's drift lasted 274 days and covered 2100 kilometers. Thirty-
three measurements of ocean depth xere made, 14 over 3 kilometers. Txenty-txo
hydrological observations were made to ccllect organisms at various ocean depths,
and the same number of gravimetric observations xere made. Magnetic and atmospheric-
electric observations xere also made.
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 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600340864-5
Processing and publication of collected data ie still not finished. The
expedition definitely established that there are not, and cannot be, any islands
or lands in the North Pole region. The relief of the bottom was atudled over
the entire path of the drift. It was established that warm Atlantic waters pass
by deep currents from the Greenland Sea up to the Pole itself, and that the water
temperature is increased is the deep depression of the Arctic Basin due to the
internal heat of the earth.
Movement of the upper layers of water (about 200 meters thick) under action
of wind was studied for the first time. Meteorological observations disproved
previous concepts of the structure and circulation of the atmosphere in the polar
regions and gravimetric and magnetic observations yielded valuable results. How-
ever, observations of the "North Pole" station on the drift and behavior of the
ice fields of the Central Arctic were most important.
iihile searching for Leve,nevskiy's four-motored.plnne,lgat 23 August 193P,
cn_ route' to' Borth America oved< the lforth_ Poles, M. V . Vodop' yanovi p~ade the first
flight in aviation history under conditions of advancing polar night.
The drift of the "Sedov" is important in that it began before the drift of
the "North Pole" station ended, thus providing continuous observations on ice
movements in the Central Arctic for almost 3 years. During the drift, 1 Septem-
ber 1938 to 13 January 1940, 415 astronomical determinations of the ship position
were made. The depth of the ocean was measured; bottom specimens were collected
at 37 points. Of the 43 hydrological observations, some included direct measure-
ment of sea currents. Eleven collections of plankton were made. Elements of ter-
reatriel magnetism were measured at 78 points, and gravimetric measurements were
made at 66 points. Meteorological observations were made every 2 hours. Value
of the observations is somewhat impaired because there were no scientists aboard
other than V. Kh. Buynitekiy, then a student of the Hydrographic Institute, Main
Administration of the Northern Sea Route.
Three landings made by a plane, piloted by Gherevichnyy, north of Vrangel'
Island from 3 April to 29 .R.pril 1941 proved that heavy planes can land on ice
of the Arctic Basin wherever pack ice is observed. Measurements showed that the
depth of 5,540 meters, measured by Wilkins, at 77 46 latitude and 185 longitude
is erroneous. Hydrological observations proved decisively that Atlantic waters
a_ a tC the h{nh laitiirioa
Wn1Ct1 Ilow lat0 the Arctil Baeiu iil dccp cur.-ea~o aprza,. up ..-o--
north of Bering Strait.
A temporary meteorological station was net up on Zemlya Bungs in 1946.
Eighty-eight epicenters of earthquakes are located from 1910 to 1934 iso-
lating a band of epicenters which passes through the mouth of the Lena River
north to Severnaya Zemlya (North Land), Franz Josef Land and Spitzbergen and fur-
ther through Jan Mayen and Iceland.
At 88 54 latitude and 339 longitude, the "North Pole" station found the
depth to be 4,290 meters. Depths of over 4,000 meters continued to 85 33 lati-
tude and 1 longitude. At 83 56, the depth had decreased to 2,380 meters, then
began to increase and again reached 4,000 meters. Such great depth only 70 kil-
ometers from the northeastern cape oi~ Greenland, where a continental shelf was
supposed to exist, was quite unexpected. Measurements were also made by the
"Sadko" and the "Sedov" and listed. The greatest depth of the Arctic Basin is
5,180 meters, measured by the "Sedov" at 86 26 latitude and 135 34 longitude
(north of Franz Josef Land).
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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600340864-5
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/08/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000600340864-5
CON~tD~~:~':~'~,
In the Soviet Arctic, magnetic anomalies are most marked in Kola Bay, on
Cape Pinogoriy, on Kol'din Island, on Teriberka (Murmansk), in the Red Army
straits between North Land island, and in the northern part of the Taymyr Penin-
sula. Magnetic observations of the "Sedov," "Sadko;" and "North Pole" made pos-
sible the construction of magnetic maps for th.;~ vast Arctic spaces between Green-
land, the North Pole, and Vrangel' Island.
Under the ice of the Arctic Basin, to a depth of 150-200 meters, there is
a very cold layer of sea water with temperatures close to freezing. Below this
layer is a deep layer of comparatively warm and salty Atlantic water in which
positive temperatures have been observed doyn to depths of 750-1,000 meters.
Below this depth, the temperature gradually decreases, reaching -0.90. These
facts were derived from observations of the "Sedov," "Sadko," and "North Pole."
A study of observations made in the Arctic Basin shows the following; the low-
est temperature measured up to the present is -1.800 and the highest 2.68?~the
lowest salinity is 2.952 percent, and the highest 3.497 percent.
Having generalized P. P. Shirshov's observations, A. D. Dobrovol'ekiy
stated that: (1) the speed?of the deep Atlantic current decreases from the
Greenland Sea to the pole; in the strait between Greenland and Spitzbergen, the
speed of this current is about 0.5 mile per 24 hours, and about 0.1-0.2 milt
per day at the pole; (2) the speed of the same flow from west to east is slightly
greater; for example, it is about 1 mile per day in the Greenland-Spitzbergen
strait.(at 82 latitude) and about 0.3 to 0.5 mile per day at 85 longitude.
Bacteriological studies of organisms in the P_rctic were made by both the
"Sadko" and the "North Pole', the letter's revealing that forms characteristic
of the Greenland Sea were found in plankton collected at the North Pole.
Preliminary study observations of the "North Pole" showed that the ice
field drifted under both action of local winds an3 under actioh of the general
southward movement independent of local wind. Drifts of both the "North?Pole"
and the "Sedov" confirmed Nansen's rules, i.e., (1) the drift speed oP ice is
approximately 150 the epeed of wind causing this drift, and (2) the ice drifts
at an angle of 300 to the direction of the wind causing this drift.
Further analysis of the drift of the "Sedov" and comparlEon with maps of
the distribution of atmospheric pressure compii