ARCTIC: Earth Vibration & more – 17th Sep 2024

Bures from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 17th of September twenty twenty-four. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

Let’s start with a story that is literally groundbreaking. A scientific report published in the journal Science on Thursday the 12th, by a research team from the University College London found out why, last September, the Earth vibrated for nine straight days.

According to the report, a glacier in Greenland melted away, causing the mountain above the glacier to collapse into the ocean. The landslide caused a mega tsunami 200 meters, or 650 feet, high to move through the Arctic ocean. The force of the massive landslide and mega tsunami resulted in the Earth shaking for nine days. Thankfully, no one was harmed but as the Arctic melts, more unpredictable events may occur.

Something less impressive is the size of Russia’s Navy. Russian President Vladimir Putin kicked off the military exercise, Ocean twenty twenty-four on Tuesday the 10th. Russia’s Defence Ministry announced that hundreds of vessels and aircraft will be operated by 90,000 troops in the largest military exercise in Russia in thirty years. But Agentstvo, a Russian investigative site, wrote on Wednesday the 11th that the reported numbers are a lie. Agentstvo believes that Russia's current active fleet is less than half of the figure provided by the defense ministry, citing information gathered by international intelligence agencies. Russia is desperate to prove its strength to allies and enemies, but its navy is a lot less impressive than Russia would hope.

To know more about this story, check out the Rorshok Ocean Update. Link in the show notes!

More about Russia, as its war with Ukraine has now reached the Arctic. From Monday the 9th to Thursday the 12th, Russian news site Mash reported that Ukrainian drones attacked the Olenya military base on the Kola Peninsula in northern Russia, just 100 kilometers away from Norway. On the 11th and 12th, all regional airports were closed and civilian flights in the region were redirected. The Olenya air base houses military bombers used to attack Ukrainian civilians, and the Russian military hoped that their remote location would be safe from retaliation. This attack shows that even the remote Arctic is not safe from modern warfare.

Recent military escalations haven’t gone unnoticed by NATO. News agency High North News reported on Tuesday the 10th that NATO ran a military training exercise in the European Arctic over the last few weeks that made military history. German and US fighter jets practiced landing on civilian highways in northern Norway and Finland. This is the first time German and US fighters have ever conducted highway landings in Europe. The purpose of this exercise is to allow NATO to improve its ability to rapidly deploy and employ airpower from unconventional locations, even from civilian roads deep in the Arctic.

Another historic first for the Arctic took place along Russia’s northern coast. The shipping news agency G-Captain reported on Thursday the 12th that, for the first time, two major container ships passed each other. Never before has enough ice melted in the Arctic Ocean to give two massive vessels the room to safely travel side-by-side. Both ships are conducting full St Petersburg to China journeys via the Arctic and this development opens up the opportunity to increase marine traffic even more in the future.

China's Arctic connections are expanding beyond Russia. From Monday the 9th to Wednesday the 11th, Jonas Gahr Støre, Norway’s Prime Minister, visited China and met with Premier Li Qiang. On Tuesday the 10th, the two leaders signed a joint statement committing to a dialogue on the green transition, restoring biodiversity, and creating green industries and jobs. While the visit didn’t produce concrete policies, it signals that China’s growing influence in the Arctic may play a role in advancing the region's green transition.

On that note about Norway, Jammfest twenty twenty-four, the world’s largest technological security test, took place in Andøya from Monday the 9th to Friday the 13th. The event practiced combating digital sabotage and invited ninety organizations and companies from over twenty countries. Preparations for the event weren’t without ironic disruption though, as on Sunday the 8th, the Norwegian Defense Research Institute revealed they discovered an important cable at the site had been sabotaged. This cable has been repaired and moved, and the incident has been reported to the police, but even the most prepared security experts have shown they are vulnerable to being disrupted.

Iceland has been dealing with its own act of deliberate obstruction. On Saturday the 14th, The Guardian reported that Samherji, Iceland’s largest fishing company, is taking art student Oddur Eysteinn Friðriksson to court later this month for spoofing its website. Last year, Friðriksson created a fake site mimicking Samherji's branding and issued a public apology for the company’s role in a twenty nineteen corruption case, where Samherji was accused of bribing Namibian officials to secure lucrative trawling rights. Now, Samherji is suing for trademark infringement and malicious falsehood. In response, numerous artists have written letters supporting Friðriksson, defending the right of artists to fairly criticize corporations.

Still in Iceland, as the country received an unwelcome and unusual visitor recently via a box of grapes. The Icelandic Institute of Natural History confirmed on Thursday the 12th that a venomous Northern Black Widow spider was found recently in Reykjavík by resident Brynhildur Helgadóttir. The spider arrived from California in a bunch of grapes with a fresh clutch of eggs. Luckily, the spider caused no harm and the arachnid and her eggs are now in the care of the Institute of Natural History.

Next, on Tuesday the 10th an international team of scientists at the Leibniz Institute on Aging revealed they had successfully decoded the genome of the Greenland shark, the world’s longest-living vertebrate with an estimated lifespan of about 400 years. The scientific team has been hoping to unlock the secrets to long life in humans and their initial results indicate the shark is able to repair its own DNA, preventing it from aging quickly. The Greenland shark has a genome double the size of a human’s, with some of the shark’s genes existing only to repair damaged DNA. The scientists have published their findings freely online, hoping that the scientific community will enable human lifespans to extend beyond the normal.

If you are interested in seeing these findings, click on the link in the show notes!

It’s been a good week for genetic news. On Sunday the 15th, Cornell University published a new study that uncovered the genetic history of Arctic sled dogs. According to the report, breeders of huskies have often assumed their dogs are pure Siberian huskies but DNA tests have been raising questions about the dogs’ lineage. The study found that the Arctic is actually home to two ancient dog breeds, Siberian and Alaskan huskies. Researchers also proved that both breeds originated much earlier than previously thought —, with humans breeding huskies in the Arctic almost 12,000 years ago.

Polar bears also have a genetic update this week. On Monday the 16th, researchers from the University of Copenhagen published a study that solved the mystery of when the polar bear first appeared. By examining bear fossils found across the Arctic, the study found that the first brown bears to develop the key polar bear features like white, double-layered fur, and the ability to digest high amounts of cholesterol, appeared about 70,000 years ago. The study found this evolution began over 100,000 years ago but eventually all the brown bears in the north turned into the iconic polar bear.

Finally over to Canada, as on Monday the 9th, the twenty twenty-five Arctic Inspiration Prize opened its nomination process with over $2.7 million US dollars in prize money available. Northern Canadians can now share their ideas for innovation in key areas such as ducation, culture, climate change and the economy, with the grand prize team receiving over $700,000 US dollars. The Arctic Inspiration Prize is the largest annual prize in Canada and is funded by a community of Indigenous organizations, governments, and industries across the country.

The application deadline is open until next February so if you want to learn more, follow the link in the show notes.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

We hope you're enjoying the Rorshok Arctic update as much as we enjoy making it. Got thoughts, questions, or ideas? Send us an email at info@rorshok.com, and don’t forget to subscribe on your go-to podcast platform!

Mana!