2nd Asian Conference on Permafrost
Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan
2-6 July, 2017
The conference was hosted by Hokkaido University. All aspects of frozen ground research were covered, from needle ice to deep permafrost, from frozen ground engineering in cities to permafrost on volcanoes, and from links between frozen ground and ancient cultures to present-day outreach. Xiaopeng Fan and Yang Yang took part in the conference with presentations: “IBED drilling system for coring in polar ice and subglacial permafrost” and “Hot-water coring system in subglacial permafrost regions”.
General Assembly 2017 of the European Geosciences Union (EGU)
Vienna, Austria
23-28 April, 2017
The EGU 2017 assembly, as in its previous editions, brought together geoscientists from all over the world to a unique meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, planetary and space sciences. The EGU aimed to provide a forum where scientists, especially early career researchers, can present their work and discuss their ideas with experts in all fields of geoscience. 4,849 oral, 11,312 poster, and 1,238 PICO presentations were given at the EGU General Assembly 2017. 649 unique scientific sessions together with 88 short courses and 322 side events created an interesting program. At the conference 14,496 scientists from 107 countries participated, of which 53% were under the age of 35 years. Jialin Hong presented the results of her PhD dissertation: “Optimization of auger system in shallow electromechanical auger drills”.
Informational Meeting in Alfred-Wegener Institute (AWI)
Bremerhaven, Germany
7 April, 2017
The meeting aimed to find points for future cooperation between PRC and AWI. Pavel Talalay gave a talk “Recent Chinese deep ice drilling projects in Antarctica”. As a result of discussion, meeting participants decided to develop cooperation in the field of elaboration of sediment coring beneath Antarctic ice shelves with the primary target to build a stratigraphic age framework of the under-shelf-ice-sediments. PRC will prepare SUBSEV vibrocorer for field testing in Antarctica while AWI will support and cover all expenses connected with field logistics. PRC also will provide personal to operate with corer in the field. The potential site is located at the Ekströmisen, Dronning Maud Land, close to the Neumayer-Station III. The plan for seasons 2017/18 and 2018/19 are the testing of sea floor sampling technique with SUBSEV corer through hot water drill holes.
IDDO Technical Advisory Board meeting 2017
Madison, USA
7-8 March, 2017
For the first time IDPO hold the Science Advisory Board (SAB) meeting together with Technical Advisory Board (TAB) meeting that allowed two boards to talk with one another. During joint SAB-TAB meeting Prof. Pavel Talalay gave a talk “Possible China-US cooperation in Antarctica”. The attendees concluded that one of the most emerging technology that can be chosen for future cooperation between PRC and US ice-drilling community is rapid ice drilling system with continual air transport of cuttings and cores. Then TAB meeting was continued in the normal course and IDDO members gave reports about recent state of IDDO ice drill systems and future plans. Pavel Talalay gave two reports “Recent progress on Chinese ice drilling projects in Antarctica” and “Recovery of the stuck drills in ice with chemical deicers: Examples and possible solutions”. At the end of the meeting P. Talalay suggested to be rotated by another expert as he have been a TAB member for a long time (8 years) and TAB needs to be refreshed. IDDO PI Mark Mulligan have greatly appreciated his participation on TAB.
