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According to modern theories lithospheric plates the entire lithosphere is divided by narrow and active zones - deep faults - into separate blocks moving in the plastic layer of the upper mantle relative to each other at a speed of 2-3 cm per year. These blocks are called lithospheric plates.

Alfred Wegener first suggested horizontal movement of crustal blocks in the 1920s as part of the “continental drift” hypothesis, but this hypothesis did not receive support at that time.

Only in the 1960s, studies of the ocean floor provided indisputable evidence of the horizontal movement of plates and the processes of expansion of the oceans due to the formation (spreading) of the oceanic crust. The revival of ideas about the predominant role of horizontal movements occurred within the framework of the "mobilistic" direction, the development of which led to the development modern theory plate tectonics. The main provisions of plate tectonics were formulated in 1967-68 by a group of American geophysicists - W. J. Morgan, C. Le Pichon, J. Oliver, J. Isaacs, L. Sykes in the development of earlier (1961-62) ideas of American scientists G. Hess and R. Digts on the expansion (spreading) of the ocean floor.

It is argued that scientists are not entirely sure what causes these very shifts and how the boundaries were designated. tectonic plates. There are countless different theories, but none of them fully explains all aspects of tectonic activity.

Let's at least find out how they imagine it now.

Wegener wrote: "In 1910, the idea of ​​moving the continents first occurred to me ... when I was struck by the similarity of the outlines of the coasts on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean." He suggested that in the early Paleozoic there were two large continents on Earth - Laurasia and Gondwana.

Laurasia was the northern mainland, which included the territories of modern Europe, Asia without India and North America. southern mainland- Gondwana united the modern territories of South America, Africa, Antarctica, Australia and Hindustan.

Between Gondwana and Laurasia was the first sea - Tethys, like a huge bay. The rest of the Earth's space was occupied by the Panthalassa ocean.

About 200 million years ago, Gondwana and Laurasia were united into a single continent - Pangea (Pan - universal, Ge - earth)

Approximately 180 million years ago, the mainland of Pangea again began to be divided into constituent parts, which mixed up on the surface of our planet. The division took place as follows: first, Laurasia and Gondwana reappeared, then Laurasia divided, and then Gondwana also split. Due to the split and divergence of parts of Pangea, oceans were formed. The young oceans can be considered the Atlantic and Indian; old - Quiet. The Arctic Ocean became isolated with the increase in land mass in the Northern Hemisphere.

A. Wegener found a lot of evidence for the existence of a single continent of the Earth. The existence in Africa and in South America remains of ancient animals - listosaurs. These were reptiles, similar to small hippos, that lived only in freshwater reservoirs. So, to swim huge distances on the salty sea ​​water they couldn't. He found similar evidence in the plant world.

Interest in the hypothesis of the movement of the continents in the 30s of the XX century. decreased slightly, but in the 60s it revived again, when, as a result of studies of the relief and geology of the ocean floor, data were obtained indicating the processes of expansion (spreading) of the oceanic crust and the “diving” of some parts of the crust under others (subduction).

The structure of the continental rift

The upper stone part of the planet is divided into two shells, which differ significantly in rheological properties: a rigid and brittle lithosphere and an underlying plastic and mobile asthenosphere.
The base of the lithosphere is an isotherm approximately equal to 1300°C, which corresponds to the melting temperature (solidus) of mantle material at lithostatic pressure existing at depths of a few hundreds of kilometers. The rocks lying in the Earth above this isotherm are quite cold and behave like a rigid material, while the underlying rocks of the same composition are quite heated and deform relatively easily.

The lithosphere is divided into plates, constantly moving along the surface of the plastic asthenosphere. The lithosphere is divided into 8 large plates, dozens of medium plates and many small ones. Between the large and medium slabs there are belts composed of a mosaic of small crustal slabs.

Plate boundaries are areas of seismic, tectonic, and magmatic activity; the inner areas of the plates are weakly seismic and are characterized by a weak manifestation of endogenous processes.
More than 90% of the Earth's surface falls on 8 large lithospheric plates:

Some lithospheric plates are composed exclusively of oceanic crust (for example, the Pacific Plate), others include fragments of both oceanic and continental crust.

Diagram of rift formation

There are three types of relative plate movements: divergence (divergence), convergence (convergence) and shear movements.

Divergent boundaries are boundaries along which plates move apart. The geodynamic setting in which the process of horizontal stretching of the earth's crust occurs, accompanied by the appearance of extended linearly elongated fissured or ravine-shaped depressions, is called rifting. These boundaries are confined to continental rifts and mid-ocean ridges in ocean basins. The term "rift" (from the English rift - gap, crack, gap) is applied to large linear structures of deep origin, formed during the stretching of the earth's crust. In terms of structure, they are graben-like structures. Rifts can be laid both on the continental and oceanic crust, forming a single global system oriented relative to the geoid axis. In this case, the evolution of continental rifts can lead to a break in the continuity of the continental crust and the transformation of this rift into an oceanic rift (if the expansion of the rift stops before the stage of break of the continental crust, it is filled with sediments, turning into an aulacogen).

The process of plate expansion in the zones of oceanic rifts (mid-ocean ridges) is accompanied by the formation of a new oceanic crust due to magmatic basaltic melts coming from the asthenosphere. Such a process of formation of a new oceanic crust due to the influx of mantle matter is called spreading (from the English spread - to spread, unfold).

The structure of the mid-ocean ridge. 1 - asthenosphere, 2 - ultrabasic rocks, 3 - basic rocks (gabbroids), 4 - complex of parallel dikes, 5 - ocean floor basalts, 6 - oceanic crust segments formed at different times (I-V as they age), 7 - near-surface igneous chamber (with ultrabasic magma in the lower part and basic in the upper part), 8 – sediments of the ocean floor (1-3 as they accumulate)

In the course of spreading, each stretching pulse is accompanied by the inflow of a new portion of mantle melts, which, while solidifying, build up the edges of the plates diverging from the MOR axis. It is in these zones that the formation of young oceanic crust occurs.

Collision of continental and oceanic lithospheric plates

Subduction is the process of subduction of an oceanic plate under a continental or other oceanic one. The subduction zones are confined to the axial parts of deep-sea trenches conjugated with island arcs (which are elements of active margins). Subduction boundaries account for about 80% of the length of all convergent boundaries.

When continental and oceanic plates collide, a natural phenomenon is the subduction of the oceanic (heavier) plate under the edge of the continental one; when two oceanic ones collide, the older one (that is, the cooler and denser) of them sinks.

The subduction zones have a characteristic structure: their typical elements are a deep-water trough - a volcanic island arc - a back-arc basin. A deep-water trench is formed in the zone of bending and underthrust of the subducting plate. As this plate sinks, it begins to lose water (which is found in abundance in sediments and minerals), the latter, as is known, significantly reduces the melting point of rocks, which leads to the formation of melting centers that feed island arc volcanoes. In the rear of the volcanic arc, some extension usually occurs, which determines the formation of a back-arc basin. In the zone of the back-arc basin, the extension can be so significant that it leads to the rupture of the plate crust and the opening of the basin with oceanic crust (the so-called back-arc spreading process).

The volume of oceanic crust absorbed in subduction zones is equal to the volume of crust formed in spreading zones. This provision emphasizes the opinion about the constancy of the volume of the Earth. But such an opinion is not the only and definitively proven. It is possible that the volume of the plans changes pulsatingly, or there is a decrease in its decrease due to cooling.

The subduction of the subducting plate into the mantle is traced by earthquake foci that occur at the contact of the plates and inside the subducting plate (which is colder and therefore more fragile than the surrounding mantle rocks). This seismic focal zone is called the Benioff-Zavaritsky zone. In subduction zones, the process of formation of a new continental crust begins. A much rarer process of interaction between the continental and oceanic plates is the process of obduction - thrusting of a part of the oceanic lithosphere onto the edge of the continental plate. It should be emphasized that in the course of this process, the oceanic plate is stratified, and only its upper part is advancing - the crust and several kilometers of the upper mantle.

Collision of continental lithospheric plates

When continental plates collide, the crust of which is lighter than the substance of the mantle and, as a result, is not able to sink into it, a collision process occurs. In the course of collision, the edges of colliding continental plates are crushed, crushed, and systems of large thrusts are formed, which leads to the growth of mountain structures with a complex fold-thrust structure. A classic example of such a process is the collision of the Hindustan plate with the Eurasian one, accompanied by the growth of the grandiose mountain systems of the Himalayas and Tibet. The collision process replaces the subduction process, completing the closure of the ocean basin. At the same time, at the beginning of the collision process, when the edges of the continents have already approached, the collision is combined with the subduction process (the remains of the oceanic crust continue to sink under the edge of the continent). Collision processes are characterized by large-scale regional metamorphism and intrusive granitoid magmatism. These processes lead to the creation of a new continental crust (with its typical granite-gneiss layer).

The main cause of plate movement is mantle convection, caused by mantle heat and gravity currents.

The source of energy for these currents is the temperature difference between the central regions of the Earth and the temperature of its near-surface parts. At the same time, the main part of the endogenous heat is released at the boundary of the core and mantle during the process of deep differentiation, which determines the decay of the primary chondrite substance, during which the metal part rushes to the center, increasing the core of the planet, and the silicate part is concentrated in the mantle, where it further undergoes differentiation.

The rocks heated in the central zones of the Earth expand, their density decreases, and they float, giving way to descending colder and therefore heavier masses, which have already given up part of the heat in near-surface zones. This process of heat transfer goes on continuously, resulting in the formation of ordered closed convective cells. At the same time, in the upper part of the cell, the flow of matter occurs in an almost horizontal plane, and it is this part of the flow that determines the horizontal movement of the matter of the asthenosphere and the plates located on it. In general, the ascending branches of convective cells are located under the zones of divergent boundaries (MOR and continental rifts), while the descending branches are located under the zones of convergent boundaries. Thus, the main reason for the movement of lithospheric plates is "drag" by convective currents. In addition, a number of other factors act on the plates. In particular, the surface of the asthenosphere turns out to be somewhat elevated above the zones of ascending branches and more lowered in the zones of subsidence, which determines the gravitational "sliding" of the lithospheric plate located on an inclined plastic surface. Additionally, there are processes of pulling the heavy cold oceanic lithosphere in the subduction zones into the hot, and, as a result, less dense, asthenosphere, as well as hydraulic wedging by basalts in the MOR zones.

The main driving forces of plate tectonics are applied to the bottom of the intraplate parts of the lithosphere: the mantle drag forces FDO under the oceans and FDC under the continents, the magnitude of which depends primarily on the velocity of the asthenospheric current, and the latter is determined by the viscosity and thickness of the asthenospheric layer. Since the thickness of the asthenosphere under the continents is much less and the viscosity is much higher than under the oceans, the magnitude of the FDC force is almost an order of magnitude inferior to that of the FDO. Under the continents, especially their ancient parts (continental shields), the asthenosphere almost wedges out, so the continents seem to be “sitting aground”. Since most of the lithospheric plates of the modern Earth include both oceanic and continental parts, it should be expected that the presence of a continent in the composition of the plate in the general case should “slow down” the movement of the entire plate. This is how it actually happens (the fastest moving are the almost purely oceanic plates Pacific, Cocos and Nasca; the slowest are the Eurasian, North American, South American, Antarctic and African, a significant part of whose area is occupied by continents). Finally, at convergent plate boundaries, where the heavy and cold edges of lithospheric plates (slabs) sink into the mantle, their negative buoyancy creates the FNB force (negative buoyance). The action of the latter leads to the fact that the subducting part of the plate sinks in the asthenosphere and pulls the entire plate along with it, thereby increasing the speed of its movement. Obviously, the FNB force acts episodically and only in certain geodynamic settings, for example, in the cases of the collapse of slabs through the 670 km section described above.

Thus, the mechanisms that set the lithospheric plates in motion can be conventionally assigned to the following two groups: 1) associated with the forces of the mantle “dragging” (mantle drag mechanism) applied to any points of the bottom of the plates, in the figure - the forces of FDO and FDC; 2) associated with the forces applied to the edges of the plates (edge-force mechanism), in the figure - the forces FRP and FNB. The role of this or that driving mechanism, as well as these or those forces, is evaluated individually for each lithospheric plate.

The totality of these processes reflects the general geodynamic process, covering areas from the surface to deep zones of the Earth. At present, two-cell closed-cell mantle convection is developing in the Earth's mantle (according to the through-mantle convection model) or separate convection in the upper and lower mantle with the accumulation of slabs under subduction zones (according to the two-tier model). The probable poles of the rise of the mantle matter are located in northeast Africa (approximately under the junction zone of the African, Somali and Arabian plates) and in the area of ​​Easter Island (under the median ridge Pacific Ocean– East Pacific Rise). The mantle subsidence equator runs along an approximately continuous chain of convergent plate boundaries along the periphery of the Pacific and eastern Indian Oceans. convection) or (according to an alternative model) convection will become through the mantle due to the collapse of slabs through the 670 km section. This may lead to the collision of the continents and the formation of a new supercontinent, the fifth in the history of the Earth.

Plate movements obey the laws of spherical geometry and can be described on the basis of Euler's theorem. Euler's rotation theorem states that any rotation of three-dimensional space has an axis. Thus, rotation can be described by three parameters: the coordinates of the rotation axis (for example, its latitude and longitude) and the angle of rotation. Based on this position, the position of the continents in past geological epochs can be reconstructed. An analysis of the movements of the continents led to the conclusion that every 400-600 million years they unite into a single supercontinent, which is further disintegrated. As a result of the split of such a supercontinent Pangea, which occurred 200-150 million years ago, modern continents were formed.

Plate tectonics is the first general geological concept that could be tested. Such a check has been made. In the 70s. deep-sea drilling program was organized. As part of this program, several hundred wells were drilled by the Glomar Challenger drillship, which showed good agreement of ages estimated from magnetic anomalies with ages determined from basalts or from sedimentary horizons. The distribution scheme of uneven-aged sections of the oceanic crust is shown in Fig.:

The age of the oceanic crust according to magnetic anomalies (Kenneth, 1987): 1 - areas of lack of data and dry land; 2–8 - age: 2 - Holocene, Pleistocene, Pliocene (0–5 Ma); 3 - Miocene (5–23 Ma); 4 - Oligocene (23–38 Ma); 5 - Eocene (38–53 Ma); 6 - Paleocene (53–65 Ma) 7 - Cretaceous (65–135 Ma) 8 - Jurassic (135–190 Ma)

At the end of the 80s. completed another experiment to test the movement of lithospheric plates. It was based on baseline measurements relative to distant quasars. Points were selected on two plates, at which, using modern radio telescopes, the distance to quasars and their declination angle were determined, and, accordingly, the distances between points on two plates were calculated, i.e., the baseline was determined. The accuracy of the determination was a few centimeters. Several years later, the measurements were repeated. Very good convergence of results calculated from magnetic anomalies with data determined from baselines was obtained.

Scheme illustrating the results of measurements of the mutual displacement of lithospheric plates, obtained by the method of interferometry with an extra long baseline - ISDB (Carter, Robertson, 1987). The movement of the plates changes the length of the baseline between radio telescopes located on different plates. The map of the Northern Hemisphere shows the baselines from which the ISDB measured enough data to make a reliable estimate of the rate of change in their length (in centimeters per year). The numbers in parentheses indicate the amount of plate displacement calculated from the theoretical model. In almost all cases, the calculated and measured values ​​are very close.

Thus, lithospheric plate tectonics has been tested over the years by a number of independent methods. It is recognized by the world scientific community as the paradigm of geology at the present time.

Knowing the position of the poles and the speed of the current movement of lithospheric plates, the speed of expansion and absorption of the ocean floor, it is possible to outline the path of movement of the continents in the future and imagine their position for a certain period of time.

Such a forecast was made by American geologists R. Dietz and J. Holden. After 50 million years, according to their assumptions, the Atlantic and Indian oceans will grow at the expense of the Pacific, Africa will shift to the north and due to this, the Mediterranean Sea will gradually be liquidated. The Strait of Gibraltar will disappear, and the “turned” Spain will close the Bay of Biscay. Africa will be split by the great African faults and the eastern part of it will shift to the northeast. The Red Sea will expand so much that it will separate the Sinai Peninsula from Africa, Arabia will move to the northeast and close the Persian Gulf. India will increasingly move towards Asia, which means that the Himalayan mountains will grow. California will separate from North America along the San Andreas Fault, and a new ocean basin will begin to form in this place. Significant changes will occur in the southern hemisphere. Australia will cross the equator and come into contact with Eurasia. This forecast requires significant refinement. Much here is still debatable and unclear.

sources

http://www.pegmatite.ru/My_Collection/mineralogy/6tr.htm

http://www.grandars.ru/shkola/geografiya/dvizhenie-litosfernyh-plit.html

http://kafgeo.igpu.ru/web-text-books/geology/platehistory.htm

http://stepnoy-sledopyt.narod.ru/geologia/dvizh/dvizh.htm

And let me remind you, but here are some interesting ones and this one. Look at and The original article is on the website InfoGlaz.rf Link to the article from which this copy is made -

The drift of the first research expedition led by Ivan Papanin began in May 1937. 9 months of work, observations and research of the North Pole station ended when an ice floe collapsed in the Greenland Sea and scientists had to curtail their activities. The entire Soviet Union watched the epic rescue of the four Papanins.

Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin

The ideologist of this expedition was Otto Yulievich Schmidt. After Stalin's approval, he quickly found people for this project - all of them were not new to the Arctic campaigns. The efficient team consisted of four people: Ivan Papanin, Ernst Krenkel, Evgeny Fedorov and Pyotr Shirshov. The head of the expedition was Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin.

Although he was born on the Black Sea coast in Sevastopol in the family of a sailor, he connected his life with the seas of the Arctic Ocean. Papanin was first sent to the Far North in 1925 to build a radio station in Yakutia. In 1931, he participated in the voyage of the Malygin icebreaker to the Franz Josef Land archipelago, a year later he returned to the archipelago as head of a field radio station, and then created a scientific observatory and a radio center at Cape Chelyuskin.

P.P. Shirshov

Hydrobiologist and hydrologist Pyotr Petrovich Shirshov was also not new to Arctic expeditions. He graduated from the Odessa Institute of Public Education, was an employee of the Botanical Garden of the Academy of Sciences, but he was attracted by travel, and in 1932 he was hired on an expedition to the icebreaker A. Sibiryakov", and a year later became a member of the tragic flight on the Chelyuskin.

E.K. Fedorov

The youngest member of the expedition was Evgeny Konstantinovich Fedorov. He graduated from Leningrad University in 1934 and devoted his life to geophysics and hydrometeorology. Fedorov was familiar with Ivan Papanin even before this expedition "North Pole - 1". He worked as a magnetologist at the polar station in Tikhaya Bay at the FJL, and then at the observatory at Cape Chelyuskin, where Ivan Papanin was his boss. After these winterings, Fedorov was included in the team for drifting on an ice floe.

THIS. Krenkel

The virtuoso radio operator Ernst Teodorovich Krenkel in 1921 graduated from the courses of radiotelegraph operators. At the final exams, he showed such a high speed in Morse code that he was immediately sent to the Lyubertsy radio station. Since 1924, Krenkel worked in the Arctic - first at Matochkin Shar, then at several more polar stations of Novaya and Severnaya Zemlya. In addition, he participated in expeditions on the "Georgy Sedov" and "Sibiryakov" and in 1930 managed to set a world record by contacting the American Antarctic station from the Arctic.

Dog Cheerful

Another full member of the expedition is the dog Vesely. It was presented by the winterers of the island of Rudolf, from which the planes made a throw to the pole. He brightened up the monotonous life on the ice floe and was the soul of the expedition. The thieving dog never denied himself the pleasure, on occasion, of sneaking into a warehouse with food and stealing something edible. In addition to enlivening the atmosphere, Vesely's main duty was to warn of the approach of polar bears, which he did very well.

There was no doctor on the expedition. His duties were assigned to Shirshov.

When preparing the expedition, we tried to take into account everything possible - from the operating conditions of the equipment to household trifles. The Papaninites were provided with a solid supply of provisions, a field laboratory, a windmill that generated energy, and a radio station for communication with the earth. However main feature This expedition consisted in the fact that it was prepared on the basis of theoretical ideas about the conditions of stay on the ice floe. But without practice, it was difficult to imagine how the expedition might end and, most importantly, how to remove scientists from the ice floe at all.

A tent served as a dwelling and camping laboratory for the duration of the drift. The structure was small - 4 by 2.5 meters. It was insulated according to the principle of a down jacket: the frame was covered with three covers: the inner one was made of canvas, the middle one was made of silk stuffed with eiderdown, the outer one was made of thin black tarpaulin soaked in a waterproof composition. Deer skins lay on the canvas floor of the tent as insulation.

The Papaninites recalled that it was very crowded inside and they were afraid to hurt something - laboratory samples were also stored in the tent, raised from the depths of the Arctic Ocean and alcoholized in flasks.

Papanin is preparing dinner

The requirements for the nutrition of polar explorers were quite strict - each day the diet of each had to consist of food with a calorie content of up to 7000 kcal. At the same time, the food had to be not only nutritious, but also contain a significant amount of vitamins - mainly vitamin C. Concentrated soup mixtures were specially developed to feed the expedition - a kind of current bouillon cubes, only more healthy and rich. One pack of such a mixture was enough to cook a good soup for four members of the expedition. In addition to soups, porridge and compotes could be prepared from such mixtures. Even cutlets were prepared dry for the expedition - in total, about 40 types of instant concentrates were developed - this required only boiling water, and all the food was ready in 2-5 minutes.

In addition to the usual dishes, completely new products with an interesting taste appeared in the diet of the polar explorers: in particular, crackers, consisting of 23 percent meat, and "salty chocolate with an admixture of meat and chicken powder." In addition to concentrates, the Papanin people had butter, cheese, and even sausage in their diet. The expedition members were also provided with vitamin tablets and sweets.

All dishes were made according to the principle that one item fits into another to save space. This subsequently began to be used by manufacturers of dishes not only expeditionary, but also ordinary, household.

Almost immediately after landing on the ice floe, work began. Petr Shirshov carried out depth measurements, took soil samples, water samples at different depths, determined its temperature, salinity, and oxygen content in it. All samples were immediately processed in the field laboratory. Evgeny Fedorov was responsible for meteorological observations. Atmospheric pressure, temperature, relative humidity, wind direction and speed were measured. All information was transmitted by radio to Rudolf Island. These communication sessions were carried out 4 times a day.

For communication with the earth, the central radio laboratory in Leningrad manufactured two radio stations on special order - a powerful 80-watt and a 20-watt emergency one. The main power source for them was a windmill (besides it there was a hand-operated engine). All this equipment (its total weight was about 0.5 tons) was made under the personal supervision of Krenkel and the guidance of radio engineer N.N. Stromilova.

Difficulties began in January 1938. The ice floe drifted south and fell into bad weather. A crack appeared on it, and its size rapidly decreased. However, the polar explorers tried to maintain peace of mind and observed the usual daily routine.

“In the tent, our nice old living tent, the kettle was boiling, supper was being prepared. Suddenly, in the midst of pleasant preparations, there was a sharp push and a creaking rustle. It seemed that silk or linen was being torn somewhere nearby, ”Krenkel recalled how the ice cracked.

“Dmitrich (Ivan Papanin) could not sleep. He smoked (the first sign of excitement) and busied himself with household chores. Sometimes he looked longingly at the loudspeaker suspended from the ceiling. When pushed, the loudspeaker swayed slightly and rattled. In the morning Papanin offered to play chess. They played thoughtfully, calmly, with full awareness of the importance of the work being done. And suddenly, through the roar of the wind, an unusual noise broke through again. The ice floe shook convulsively. We still decided not to stop the game,” he wrote about the moment when the ice floe cracked right under the tent.

Krenkel then quite casually transmitted Papanin's message on the radio: “As a result of a six-day storm at 8 o'clock in the morning on February 1, in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe station, the field was torn apart by cracks from half a kilometer to five. We are on a fragment of a field 300 meters long and 200 meters wide (the initial size of the ice floe was approximately 2 by 5 kilometers). Cut off two bases, also a technical warehouse with secondary property. Everything of value was saved from the fuel and utility depots. There was a crack under the living tent. We will move to the snow house. Coordinates will inform additionally today; If the connection is interrupted, please do not worry.

The ships "Taimyr" and "Murman" have already moved to the polar explorers, but it was not easy to get to the station due to the difficult ice conditions. The planes also could not take the polar explorers from the ice floe - the platform for their landing on the ice collapsed, and one plane sent from the ship itself got lost, and a rescue expedition was created to search for it. The ships were able to break through to the station only when a polynya formed, they received significant damage in the ice along the way.

February 19 at 13:40 "Murman" and "Taimyr" moored to the ice field 1.5 kilometers from the polar station. They took on board all the members of the expedition and their equipment. The last message of the expedition was as follows: “... At this hour we are leaving the ice floe at the coordinates of 70 degrees 54 minutes north, 19 degrees 48 minutes wind and passing over 2500 km in 274 days of drift. Our radio station was the first to announce the news of the conquest of the North Pole, ensured reliable communication with the Motherland, and this telegram ends its work.” On February 21, the Papaninites switched to the Yermak icebreaker, which delivered them to Leningrad on March 16.

The scientific results obtained in a unique drift were presented to the General Meeting of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR on March 6, 1938 and were highly appreciated by specialists. All members of the expedition were awarded academic degrees and titles of Heroes. Soviet Union. This title was also awarded to pilots - A.D. Alekseev, P.G. Golovin, I.P. Mazuruk and M.I. Shevelev.

Thanks to this first expedition, the next ones became possible - in the 1950s, the North Pole - 2 expedition followed, and soon such winterings became permanent. In 2015, the last expedition "North Pole" took place.

On this day, May 21, 1937 - 79 years ago, the expedition of I. Papanin, E. Krenkel, P. Shirshov, E. Fedorov landed on the ice of the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole and deployed the first polar station "North Pole-1".

For decades, thousands of desperate travelers and explorers of the North have sought to get to the North Pole, tried at all costs to hoist the flag of their country there, marking the victory of their people over the harsh and powerful forces of nature.

With the advent of aviation, new opportunities arose to reach the North Pole. Such as the flights of R. Amundsen and R. Byrd on airplanes and the flights of the airships "Norway" and "Italy". But for serious scientific research in the Arctic, these expeditions were short-lived and not very significant. The real breakthrough was the successful completion of the first air high-latitude Soviet expedition and the landing on drifting ice in 1937 of the heroic "four" under the leadership of I. D. Papanin.

So, O.Yu. Schmidt headed the air part of the transfer to the Pole, and I. D. Papanin was responsible for its sea part and wintering at the drifting station "SP-1". The expedition planned to land in the area of ​​the North Pole for a year, during which it was supposed to collect a huge amount of various scientific data on meteorology, geophysics, and hydrobiology. Five planes took off from Moscow on 22 March. The flight ended on May 21, 1937.

At 11:35 a.m., the flagship aircraft under the control of the commander of the flight detachment, Hero of the Soviet Union M.V. Vodopyanov landed on the ice, flying 20 km beyond the North Pole. And the last of the planes landed only on June 5, the flight and landing conditions were so difficult. On June 6, the flag of the USSR was raised over the North Pole, and the planes set off on their return journey.

Four brave researchers remained on the ice floe with a tent for living and working, two radio stations connected by an antenna, a workshop, a meteorological booth, a theodolite for measuring the height of the sun and warehouses built of ice. The expedition included: P.P. Shirshov - hydrobiologist, glaciologist; E.K. Fedorov - meteorologist-geophysicist; THIS. Krenkel - radio operator and I.D. Papanin is the head of the station. There were months of exhausting work, hard life. But it was a time of mass heroism, high spirituality and impatient striving forward.

Every day of stay at the North Pole brought new discoveries to the researchers, and the first of them was the depth of water under the ice at 4290 meters. Soil samples were taken daily at certain periods of observation, the depths and drift speed were measured, coordinates were determined, magnetic measurements, hydrological and meteorological observations were made.

Soon the drift of the ice floe, on which the researchers' camp was located, was discovered. Her wanderings began in the region of the North Pole, then the ice floe rushed south at a speed of 20 km per day.

A month after the landing of the Papaninites on the ice floe (as the brave four were dubbed all over the world), when the Kremlin hosted a solemn meeting of the participants of the World's First Air Expedition to the North Pole, a decree was read out awarding O.Yu. Schmidt and I.D. Papanin with the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union, the rest of the drift participants were awarded the Orders of Lenin. The ice floe, on which the Papanin camp was located, after 274 days turned into a fragment no more than 30 meters wide with several cracks.

A decision was made to evacuate the expedition. Behind was a path of 2,500 km across the Arctic Ocean and the Greenland Sea. On February 19, 1938, the polar explorers were removed from the ice floe by the icebreakers Taimyr and Murman. On March 15, the polar explorers were delivered to Leningrad.

The scientific results obtained in a unique drift were presented to the General Meeting of the USSR Academy of Sciences on March 6, 1938 and were highly appreciated by specialists. scientific staff expeditions were awarded academic degrees. Ivan Dmitrievich Papanin received the title of Doctor of Geographical Sciences.

With the heroic drift of the Papaninites, the systematic development of the entire Arctic basin began, which made regular navigation in the Northern sea ​​route. Despite all the gigantic obstacles and hardships of fate, the people of Papanin, with their personal courage, wrote one of the brightest pages in the history of the development of the Arctic.

Drifting- movement of the ship relative to the water surface under the influence of wind. The superstructure of the ship is affected by an aerodynamic wind force - R. Rx; Рu - components of the force Р. Рх - projection of the force Р on the ship's diametral plane, changes the relative velocity by ∆V and is taken into account by the relative lag. The sign of ∆V is determined by the heading angle of the wind qw: tailwind - the speed increases, deflective - the speed decreases.

The component Pu - the projection of the force P on the plane of the frames, causes the ship to move from the IR line at a speed Vdr. Thus, the ship moves at a speed V = Vo + Vdr along the path, where Vo = Vl - Kl

The angle between the northern part of the true meridian and the track line - the track angle during drift - PU α. Angle between line true course and the line of the path, due to the influence of the wind on the ship, - drift angle - α.

PU α = IR + α.

The sign of the drift angle is determined from the heading angle of the wind:
- wind to the left side - the ship blows to the right: α - plus sign;
- wind to starboard - the ship blows to the left: α - minus sign.

Drift angles are determined empirically and are entered in the "Navigator's Reference Tables" for further consideration during the navigation process.

The arguments for choosing the drift angle are the ratios of the wind speeds (W in m/s) and the ship speed (V in knots) and the heading angle of the wind qw - the angle between the ship's diametral plane and the direction of the current wind line. To determine the direction of the wind, a mnemonic rule is used: "the wind blows into the compass" - this means that the direction of the wind indicates where it "blowing" from. For example: north wind - from the North, wind 230° from the direction 230°, i.e. from the southwest, wind 315° from the direction 315° - from the northwest, etc.

For example: the submarine follows the true course IK=70.0° at a speed of 6 knots, wind direction 130°, speed W= 12m/s. Ratio W/V=12/6=2. Heading wind angle 60° starboard. From the drift angle table α =4.0°. Wind to starboard - drift angle sign minus. Thus, drift angle a=-4.0°

Ground speed of the ship V = Vo / cosα = Vo secα, therefore, at drift angles α ≤ 5°, sec α 5°).

Drift Accounting Method for Manual Graphical Reckoning

Calculation of the ship's path:

1. From the "Navigator's Reference Tables" according to the heading angle of the wind qw and the ratio of wind and ship speeds W/V, select the drift angle α.
2. Calculate the ship's path: PU α= IK + α and lay it on the map from the drift accounting start point, if α > 5°, then the lines of the true course and path are plotted on the map.
3. An inscription is made at the track line: КК 63.0°(+2.0°) α = +3.0°.

1. From the starting point on the map, lay the path line PU α, along which it is necessary to follow.
2. Select the drift angle α from the Navigator's Reference Tables.
3. Determine the sign of the drift angle from the heading angle of the wind.
4. Calculate the true course and the compass course of the ship given to the helmsman: IK = PU α -α; KK \u003d IR - Δ K.

Calculation of the calculated place at a given point in time:

If α ≤ 5.0°

1. To calculate the reckonable place at a given moment, fix the time T2 and the reading of the lag OL2.
2. Calculate the distance traveled along the lag: Sl \u003d (OL2 - OL1) * class.
3. Set aside the distance Sl traveled from the starting point along the path line, the resulting point is the numbered place at the time T2

If α > 5°

1. Set aside the distance Sl traveled along the lag from the starting point along the IR line.
2. The resulting point on the IR is to be demolished along the perpendicular to the true course on the PU α - point T2 / OL2 - the required numbered place at the time T2.

A point on the track line can be assigned either by coordinates or relative to any object (navigation landmark) according to a given bearing, distance from the landmark, heading angle to the landmark, for example, traverse. To calculate the time and count the lag, you must:

If α ≤ 5.0°

1. Put a given point C1 (C2, C3) on the path line of the launcher using one of the indicated methods.
2. Measure the distance Sl passed by the ship along the relative log from the starting point to the given point.
3. Calculate ROL, by which the counter of the distance traveled by the lag will change: ROL = Sl / cl.
4. Calculate the sailing time from the starting point to the given one: t=Sl / V0
5. Calculate the required time and lag reading: Т2 = T1 + t; OL2=OL1+ ROL.

If α >5°

1. Put a given point C1(C2, C3) on the path line PUα.
2. given point C1 (C2, C3) demolish along the perpendicular to the IC to the line of the true course - the resulting point A1 (A2, A3).
3. Measure the distance Sl along the IR line from the starting point to POINT A1 (A2, A3).
4. Calculate the sailing time t and ROL, by which the lag distance counter will change: t=Sl/V0; ROL=Sl / Cl
5. Calculate the required time and lag reading Т2 = T1 + t; OL2=OL1 + ROL.