Review of Arctic scientist, Gulag survivor: the biography of Mikhail Mikhailovich Ermolaev, 1905–1991, translated and edited by William Barr

Mikhail Mikhailovich Ermolaev (pronounced Yermolayev) —a Russian pre- and post-war geographer and geologist—is not a well-known scientist, neither in an international nor a Russian context. But he was an outstanding person in the lives of the many people he met during his long academic career. His difficult life in many ways reflects Russian scholarship during all stages of the Soviet era, from the Bolshevik Revolution to its dissolution, including the terrible years of Stalin’s reign of terror against academic society

Review of The 1926/27 Soviet polar census expeditions,

After the Russian Civil War, in 1925, the new Soviet leaders cast their eyes on the thinly populated and remote northern areas of the Russian Empire to make them active parts of the Soviet project. In 1926-1927, the Soviet administration initiated expeditions to gather data on the whereabouts, economy and living conditions of rural people in the Arctic and sub-Arctic in the young Soviet Union. This turned into a massive ethnological programme that gathered demographic and economic data on almost every household as well as other unique materials such as photographs, maps, kinship charts, narrative transcripts and artefacts. The present book presents a number of analyses from 8 years’ investigations of parts of the collected material by a large, well-qualified team of scientists. (Published: 24 January 2012) Citation: Polar Research 2012, 31, 17147, DOI: 10.3402/polar.v31i0.1714

Notes on the stratigraphy, extent and tectonic implications of the Minkinfjellet Basin, Middle Carboniferous of central Spitsbergen

A part of the Carboniferous basin stratigraphy, the clastic to carbonaceous Minkinfjellet “Member” of the Nordenskioldbreen Formation in Central Spitsbergen, is deposited in an asymmetric basin structure (here referred to as the Minkinfjellet Basin), similar to the underlying Ebbadalen Formation. The western boundary -situated within the Billcfjorden Fault Zone -has probably been a little farther east than during deposition of the Ebbadalen strata. The thickness attains ca. 350 m in central parts of the basin, and the strata strongly attenuates to the east and south. The base and top are interpreted as low-angle stratigraphical unconformities. The boundary with the overlying Cadcllfjellet Member of the Nordenskioldbreen Formation is locally disrupted by carbonate breccias of suggested earthquake origin. Formation rank is suggested for the sedimentary succession of the Minkinfjellet basin

Review of Asian countries and the Arctic future, edited by Leiv Lunde, Yang Jian & Iselin Stensdal

No abstract available.(Published: 9 February 2016)Citation: Polar Research 2016, 35, 31052, http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/polar.v35.3105

Review of The 1926/27 Soviet polar census expeditions, by David G. Anderson

After the Russian Civil War, in 1925, the new Soviet leaders cast their eyes on the thinly populated and remote northern areas of the Russian Empire to make them active parts of the Soviet project. In 1926-1927, the Soviet administration initiated expeditions to gather data on the whereabouts, economy and living conditions of rural people in the Arctic and sub-Arctic in the young Soviet Union. This turned into a massive ethnological programme that gathered demographic and economic data on almost every household as well as other unique materials such as photographs, maps, kinship charts, narrative transcripts and artefacts. The present book presents a number of analyses from 8 years’ investigations of parts of the collected material by a large, well-qualified team of scientists.(Published: 24 January 2012)Citation: Polar Research 2012, 31, 17147, DOI: 10.3402/polar.v31i0.1714

The structure of the Berzeliustinden area: evidence for thrust wedge tectonics in the Tertiary fold-and-thrust belt of Spitsbergen

The Berzeliustinden area forms part of the Tertiary fold-and-thrust belt of western Spitsbergen. The relations of a basement-involved thrust fault, decollement structures, and a fault repeating part of the stratigraphy are investigated. The deforming mechanism is thought to be‘wedging’of a basement-involved thrust block into bituminous shaly beds of the overlying strata. The thrust fault thus does not continuously cut through to the surface, but lifts the overlying strata, forming a backward directed bedding-parallel thrust fault on top of the wedge. The presence of two bituminous shale formations, both potential splitting mediums for the wedge, complicates the structures. Many structural observations from adjacent areas of the fold-and-thrust belt also fit with this model. It is suggested that thrust wedges are common tectonic elements in the belt and might also be present further east beneath the relatively undeformed Tertiary strata of central Spitsbergen

Review of Islands of the Arctic, by Julian Dowdeswell & Michael Hambrey

This is a well illustrated introductory book about the islands of the Arctic

The nature of the Precambrian-Tertiary boundary at Renardodden, Bellsund, Svalbard

The previous literature on the occurrence of Tertiary strata at Renardodden provides contradictory information about the primary versus tectonic boundary with the Precambrian basement. Tertiary sandstones and shales overlie unconformably the basement rocks, which have been resedimented as boulder conglomerates prior to Caledonian metamorphism and weathered prior to the deposition of the Tertiary strata. The boundary relations are complicated by a repeatedly active fault system that may form part of the Inner Hornsund Fault Zone