Radioecological investigations on the Northern Novaya Zemlya Archipelago

Multidisciplinary investigations carried out in the Cape Zhelaniya area and on the Severny ice dome of Severny Island in the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago during cruise 63 of the R/V Akademik Mstislav Keldysh in September 2015 included a study of the environmental radiation level. The landscape‒geochemical and radiation‒glaciological data show that the Severny ice dome serves as a secondary source of radionuclides on the surface of the ice sheet; this source originated from past nuclear weapons testing in the atmosphere over the Severnaya Zemlya test site. Some samples taken from the periglacial zone near the edge of the Severny ice dome yielded specific activity levels of radioactive cesium of 450–650 Bq/kg. The study of ice cores obtained by shallow (up to 5.4 m) drilling of three boreholes revealed no significant activity values. At the same time, glaciological investigations made it possible to obtain the first data on the previously unexamined glacier, which indicate that the radioactively contaminated layer is located at a depth of 15‒20 m at the boundary of the glacier alimentation zone. No similar investigations had been conducted earlier either by Russian or international scientific teams.