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Samoylov 2014: The Arctic Pyramid
(Photo: Sofia Antonova) On the way to the pikeWednesday, 27th of August 2014
The idea to visit the Arctic Pyramid or Stalin's Pike has already appeared quite some time ago. What did we always see from our Ice Complex – is the lonely, regular shaped cone, looking like a small volcano.
The area around the pike was also interesting for my investigations – it gives a very distinct signal on my radar images. That's why it was decided one morning to head off there and to see it with our own eyes.
(Photo: Sofia Antonova) On the topThe day we have chosen was exactly when the smoke from the forest fires on the south reached the delta.
So the view was a lot like something japanese - Fujiyama in the morning gauze. It took us one hour to walk to the pike's foot through the familiar tundra wetlands.
And then - another hour to climb up to around 200 meters asl – and we are on the top, admired by the view from the pike as well as the pike's top itself! It is a kind of puzzle - what happened here, in this location, from the geomorphological point of view?
(Photo: Sofia Antonova) The view from the top on the different surface typesWhy the pike, formed by perfect layers of sandstone, standing there alone?
The lunch on the top was definitely the best lunch of the entire expedition time! And I also dare to assume that maybe the whole day was one of the best – so much the landscape impressed us.
As for my regions of interest – we found a very clear border between the green wetlands, with thawing depth not more than 40 cm, so usual for the Ice Complex landscape and rather unusual bare ground places, with a lot of stones and thawing depth of around 80 cm.
(Photo: Sofia Antonova) Every step around the pike amazed us more and more – fantastically weathered rocksMeanwhile Julia proceeded with her "kite sensing" investigations.
She mounted a small camera on the kite, and while we were walking across the different landscape units, the camera made pictures automatically.
Written by Sofia