Photo: from the archive of participants

A group of scientists from the Institute of Natural Sciences of North-Eastern Federal University returned a few days ago from an expedition devoted to the 140th anniversary of Richard Maack's fundamental scientific work "Vilyuisky District of the Yakutsk Region". Scientists and undergraduates, students and pupils of schools followed the trail of Richard Maack in the Vilyui group of uluses of Yakutia.

The author and the head of the project is the teacher of the English language of the Verkhnevilyuysky Republican Lyceum Sardaana Zakharova. The project was supported by the Yakut regional society "Znanie", the Yakut branch of the Russian Geographical Society and the Public Chamber of the Republic.

Employees of the federal university and the Yakutsk scientific center of the SB RAS carried out scientific management of the project. On June 9, historians, geographers, geologists, and biologists went on the expedition. During the preparatory stage, a guide "Field diary of a tourist" was developed.

From the village Ilbenge of Vilyuisky district through Vilyuysk city and further from Verkhnevilyuisk the group went to the Nyurbinsky district and visited the Suntar district. "During the expedition, meteorological observations and questioning of the population about the climatic features and the impact of climate changes on the life of the region were carried out", said Aleksandr Petrov, head of NEFU Laboratory of Hydrometeorology, Climatology and Ecology of the Atmosphere. - We conducted a comprehensive study of several lakes, as well as landscape research along the route. According to the results of the collected field data, students will write scientific projects, and the work with the schools of the Vilyuisky District will be continued", she said.

The expedition ended on June 28. The participants were pupils of 6-10 grades of Suntarsky, Nyurbinsky, Verhnevilyuysky, Vilyuisky districts and Yakutsk.

Reference:

Richard Maack is a naturalist, an explorer of Siberia and the Far East, a teacher. He made a number of important expeditions to the Vilyui district in 1853-1855 to describe orography, geology and population of the Vilyui, Olekma and Chona River basins.