North Pole-1
North Pole-1 (Russian Северный Полюс -1, Severny Polyus -1, abbreviated СП -1, SP-1) was the first polar station, which has been set up by the Soviet Union in 1937 on a drifting ice floe at the North Pole. Since probably neither Robert Peary yet have reached the North Pole Frederick Cook, entered on this occasion for the first time people the area at the northernmost point of the earth.
Procedure and results
The drift station " North Pole-1 " was directed by Ivan Papanin and also included Yevgeny Konstantinovich Fyodorov scientists ( 1910-1981 ) and Pyotr Petrovich Shirshov ( 1905-1953 ) and the radio operator Ernst Krenkel. The responsibility for the entire project was Otto Schmidt. On May 21, 1937 ANT -6 put the expedition on an ice floe. It was located 20 kilometers away from the pole after a first, preliminary position determination; later the position 89 ° 25 'North and 78 ° 40' West has been clarified. On May 27 and June 5, landed three more aircraft temporarily located 43 men were on the ice; six tents were set up and unloaded ten tons of cargo. On June 7, the machine took off again, leaving the four members of the expedition and a dog back; the soil was there already drifted 88 ° 54 'North and 20 ° West to on. In July 1937, the crew formed the northernmost party and Komsomolgruppe the Soviet Union, although only Papanin full member of the party and non-party was even Shirshov.
At the beginning of the expedition floe had a size of 3200 times 1600 meters and was three feet thick. The station consisted of a tent, a radio station and a weather house. In July, the weather was so warm that formed pools of water everywhere. On the other hand, blew again and again snowstorms to the station. For the first trans- polar flight from Moscow to Vancouver on June 20, 1937 Valery Chkalov the expedition planted a emergency landing. The winter began on September 2, with a temperature of minus twelve degrees. This allowed the expedition members, in addition to tent a house of Eisziegeln ( igloo ) to build. On October 4, she last saw the sun.
Mid-October, they had already crossed the 85th degree of latitude. The ice floe drifted at a speed of up to 21 kilometers a day the east coast of Greenland south along. Despite the onset of polar night the drift velocity of the ice field took more like it. From the beginning of January it came to ice pressure, on January 20, 1938 Scholl residents felt the strong shock: From the living tent to the ice edge, the distance was only 300 meters. After a heavy snowstorm a first crevasse ran on 29 January by the expedition camp. More crevasses forced to constantly relocate, while the surrounding ice rink turned into rubble. On 3 February, the Taimyr in the Murmansk Murmansk ran out to retrieve the expedition, four days later - never had surgery to the season icebreaker as far north in the Arctic Ocean. Flounder was now no longer even large enough to completely relax the 70 meter long antenna wire, and so far drifted to the south that even the sun reappeared. On February 12, the researchers sighted the headlights of the Taimyr, but a week later the icebreaker had reached the camp at 70 ° 54 'North and 19 ° 48' West within sight of the coast of Greenland. In 274 days had " North Pole-1 " 2500 km traveled, the direct distance was 2050 km; the last ice floe was only 30 feet wide. Expedition leader Ivan Papanin had taken in the period from 90 to 60 kilograms. Also, the semi-rigid airship USSR -W6 should fly from the Kola Peninsula from the direction of Greenland, to accommodate the expedition. It was sunk, however. Thirteen crew members died.
Among the important scientific results include the first depth measurements from the Arctic Ocean. On 6 June, a sea depth of 4290 meters was measured and taken it a soil sample from the seabed. On July 17, we measured a water depth of 4395 meters; on September 13, only 3767 meters: an underwater ridge had been discovered. According to the findings of " North Pole-1 " turned the Arctic Ocean as a deep depression dar. For the first time was a low profile from the pole into the Atlantic are outlined.
The movement of the ice itself brokered a picture of the surface flow. They accelerated the transition into the Atlantic. Just 100 meters water depth Pyotr Shirshov also discovered a counter- flow direction pole. At two points of the drift and the gravity was measured, whereby information about the geological structure could be obtained. Helpful were the values obtained for magnetic declination, because only with its help can the magnetic compass in these parts use for navigation. Meteorologists had been convinced by then that the north pole is constantly covered by a cold air cap; though it was sometimes warmer than in Moscow on the ice.
Already on June 3, 1937 Alk was sighted what the hitherto prevailing theory of Fridtjof Nansen refuted, the Arctic Ocean should be free of animal life. Later members of the expedition also observed snow buntings, fulmars and a bearded seal. On August 1, appeared even a female polar bear with two boys and has been marketed with shots.
The Second World War at first prevented further similar activities. In April 1950, the Soviet Union took a second Eisdriftforschungsstation in operation. Between 1937 and 1991 there were a total of 31 Soviet Eisdriftstationen in the Arctic.
Film
- Red Arctic. The conquest of the North Pole in 1937, Documentary, Germany, 2009