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Progress of Antarctic meteorite survey and research in China
Get PDFMore than 50000 meteorite samples have been collected in Antarctica since 1969, making meteorite surveys a very important aspect of Antarctic expeditions. The Chinese National Antarctic Research Expedition has collected more than 12000 meteorites in the Grove Mountains region, where has been confirmed as one of the richest meteorite concentration sites in Antarctica. China, therefore, possesses one of the world’s largest Antarctic meteorite collections and has made substantial contributions to this field of research. We summarize here the Chinese meteorite survey efforts in the Grove Mountains, as well as discuss progress of the classification and investigation of Grove Mountains meteorites. Outlooks are also proposed for the future of Antarctic meteorite work
Records in palaeo-notch sediment: changes in palaeo-productivity and their link to climate change from Svalbard
Get PDFPalaeo-notch sediment, accumulated in lacustrine environment, is a reliable proxy material for palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental research. In this study, we collected a palaeo-notch sediment profile from the Blomstrandhalvøya, used multiple geochemical proxies to reconstruct palaleoproductivity variations, and investigated their link to climatic records from surrounding regions. C/N atomic ratios and carbon isotope indicate that organic matter in the sediment is mainly derived from lacustrine algae. Toward the surface sediment, the TOC, TN, P contents and the reconstructed palaeoproductivity show remarkable fluctuations with several peaks and troughs, opposite to the variation trend of the CaCO3 contents. Changes in the reconstructed palaeoproductivity are in good agreement with palaeoclimatic records from the surrounding regions, and three interruptions are likely linked to the well-known cooling periods around 1900 BP, 2800 BP and 4200 BP. Thus palaeoproductivity variations on the Blomstrandhalvøya are mainly driven by climate changes; palaeoproductivity increase during warmer periods, and vice versa. This study will help the research of Arctic lake ecosystem and its response to climate change
Report of the 2nd Arctic Science Ministerial: Co-operation in Arctic Science – Challenges and Joint Actions
Get PDFThe rapid changes happening in the Arctic are impacting the fragile Arctic ecosystem and have deep impacts on the people living there. Arctic changes are also impacting the global system such as influencing the climate system or sea levels changes. There is a sense of urgency among decision-makers and awareness in the public opinion regarding the global importance of changes taking place in the Arctic. These challenges demand for coordinated and carefully planned collective efforts, as no country can work in isolation in this difficult environment, under harsh working conditions
Business Finance in the Arctic - Analysis of access to finance for SMEs and start-ups in the Arctic region - Annex
Get PDFThis Annex contains the mapping results of public and private institutions providing finance to business in the Arctic regio
Influence of the Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation on the approach of non-Arctic states to Arctic scientific activities
Get PDFAs the third legally-binding instrument of the Arctic Council, the Agreement on Enhancing International Arctic Scientific Cooperation was signed in May 2017 and entered into force on 23 May 2018. The Agreement not only reduces obstacles to the international scientific cooperation and promotes the movement of people and equipment across borders for the effective and efficient development of Arctic scientific knowledge, but also provides an improved international Arctic legal environment for conducting Arctic scientific cooperation based on UNCLOS and institutional arrangements. However, the observer states, the NGOs and IGOs, as well as Permanent Participants are rarely mentioned in this Agreement. This article chooses one group, non-Arctic states, as a case in point in order to critically discuss the influence of this new Arctic scientific cooperation agreement. It argues that the non-Arctic states are left behind at the original legal situation and trapped in an inferior status in Arctic science. Under these circumstances, this article suggests that non-Arctic states, especially those with competitive research abilities, should appeal for amendment of the Agreement to allow wider access to research areas and data sharing, especially when cooperating with the eight-member states of the Arctic Council. Also, non-Arctic states should take the Agreement as the reference when signing bilateral agreements with Arctic states so as to safeguard their interests when conducting Arctic scientific activities. Moreover, the active participation in other fora as well as various bilateral scientific projects can assist non-Arctic states to strengthen the relations with the Arctic states and build trust in the Arctic Council
Distribution domains of the Pan-African event in East Antarctica and adjacent areas
Get PDFThe Pan-African event is widely distributed in East Antarctica (EA) craton, including both the coastal regions and interior of the EA. From aspects of the shear zones, granites, pegmatites, time of high-grade metamorphism and detrital zircon age peaks of the downflowing sediments from the inland, the Pan-African event in the EA and adjacent areas in the Gondwana reconstruction, like SE Africa, southern India and SW Australia, was described in the paper. The water or fluid available along the shear zones was responsible for retrogression of the earlier, e.g., Grenville age, high-grade outcrops to later Pan-African amphibolite to granulite facies metamorphism. In geochemistry, the granites are generally anorogenic, ocassionally with some gabbros or dolerite dykes, showing sign of bimodal feature. Meanwhile, the event has influenced most isotopic systems, including the U-Pb, Sm-Nd, Rb-Sr and Ar-Ar systems, giving Pan-African apparent ages. Spatially, the Pan-African event is demonstrated from possibly local granitic magmatism, to wider medium-high grade metamorphism, and mostly widespread in resetting for some isotope systems, suggesting the prevailing thermal effect of the event. Before Gondwana formation, local depressions in the EA may have been filled with sediments, implying the initial breakup period of the Rodinia. The later Pan-Gondwana counterrotating cogs shaped the interstitial fold belts between the continent blocks and formed a set of shear zones. The mafic underplating in the Gondwana may be responsible for the typical features of the Pan-African event. The event may be an overwhelmingly extensional and transcurrent tectonics in mechanism and is a possible response of the plate movement surrounding the continent swarms in the non-stable interior of the yet consolidated Gondwana
U-Th-Pb monazite and Sm-Nd dating of high-grade rocks from the Grove Mountains, East Antarctica: further evidence for a Pan-African-aged monometamorphic terrane
Get PDFThe Grove Mountains, 400 km south of the Chinese Antarctic Zhongshan Station, are an inland continuation of the Pan-African-aged (i.e., Late Neoproterozoic/Cambrian) Prydz Belt, East Antarctica. In this paper we carried out a combined U-Th-Pb monazite and Sm-Nd mineral-whole-rock dating on para- and orthogneisses from bedrock in the Grove Mountains. U-Th-Pb monazite dating of a cordierite-bearing pelitic paragneiss yields ages of 523 4 Ma for the cores and 508 6 Ma for the rims. Sm-Nd mineral-whole-rock isotopic analyses yield isochron ages of 536 3 Ma for a coarse-grained felsic orthogneiss and 507 30 Ma for a fine-grained quartzofeldspathic paragneiss. Combined with previously published age data in the Grove Mountains and adjacent areas, the older age of ~530 Ma is interpreted as the time of regional medium- to low-pressure granulite-facies metamorphism, and the younger age of ~510 Ma as the cooling age of the granulite terrane. The absence of evidence for a Grenville-aged (i.e., Late Mesoproterozoic/Early Neoproterozoic) metamorphic event indicates that the Grove Mountains have experienced only a single metamorphic cycle, i.e., Pan-African-aged, which distinguishes them from other polymetamorphic terranes in the Prydz Belt. This will provide important constraints on the controversial nature of the Prydz
Belt
Simulated impact of Southern Hemisphere westerlies on Antarctic Shelf Bottom Water temperature
Get PDFThe Southern Hemisphere (SH) westerly winds have intensified and shifted poleward since the 1970s and this trend is projected to sustain under future anthropogenic forcing. The influences of intensified SH westerlies on the Antarctic coastal waters are still not clear. The variability of Antarctic Continental Shelf Bottom Water (ASBW) temperature is crucial for ice shelf basal melting and hence ice shelf mass balance in Antarctica. In order to understand the impacts of SH westerlies on the variability of ASBW temperature, atmospheric forcing in 1992 with weak westerlies and in 1998 with strong westerlies are used to drive a high-resolution ocean-sea ice general circulation model, MITgcm-ECCO2. Our simulated results show that under the atmospheric forcing in 1998, the ASBW becomes warmer in most regions around Antarctica except the coastal region between 60°–150°W, than for the case under atmospheric forcing in 1992. The warming of ASBW around Antarctica is due to the intense shoaling and warming of CDW induced by enhanced Ekman pumping as well as strengthened subpolar gyres. The strengthened subpolar gyres favor the transportation of warm water to the coast of Antarctica. The cooling of ASBW along the coast of the western Antarctic Peninsula is caused by stronger coastal currents, which bring colder water downstream from the northwest flank of the Weddell Sea
Joint Statement of Ministers - On the occasion of the Second Arctic Science Ministerial
Get PDFWe, the Ministers representing the eight Arctic States (Canada, the Kingdom of Denmark - here represented by Ministers of Denmark, Faroe Islands and Greenland -, Finland, Iceland, Norway, Russia, Sweden and the United States), fifteen further States (Austria, Belgium, China, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom), and the representative of the European Union, joined by representatives of six Arctic Indigenous Peoples Organizations (Aleut International Association, Arctic Athabaskan Council, Gwich'in Council International, Inuit Circumpolar Council, Russian Association of Indigenous Peoples of the North, Saami Council), have gathered to further enhance collaborative science efforts in the Arcti
