Hello Everyone!
We’re well on our way to Cherskiy, although not quite there yet. We’re in Yakutsk now, finally somewhat rested and ready for the day. We haven’t had the chance to really do any science yet and only briefly discussed what sort of work we’ll be doing in Cherskiy, but one thing that I’ve enjoyed is just looking out the window from our various planes. On the way to Moscow, we could see outlet glaciers and melt ponds on the Greenland ice sheet. It’s also been somewhat clear flying across Siberia. Flying out of Novosibirsk, we could see lots of patches of boreal forest, and the Ob’ River, one of the largest in the world. The atmosphere is fairly hazy, but I can just make out some of the landscape between Novosibirsk and Yakutsk. Interspersed with all the forest are lots of lakes and streams. I’ve seen plenty of satellite imagery of Siberia and some photos, but it’s another thing to begin to see it for yourself! I can’t wait to get to Cherskiy and get out in the field!
Yesterday, we got to go to a history museum in Yakutsk. It was a lot bigger and better than you would expect! Most of it was in Russian, but there were a ton of really great photos spanning throughout the 20th century of most of the major events in Soviet history, and what they meant for Yakutians. We occasionally ran into a bit of a language barrier, but luckily the Russian students, Kirill and Nikolai have joined us. They’ve been really helpful getting us around Yakutsk and translating for the confused Americans!
Claire