N. V. Kudryavtsev and geological researches of the Russian Lapland by the Murmansk expedition in 1880

The article is devoted to the history of the Murmansk expedition, which in 1880 studied the fauna, flora and geology of the Russian Lapland on assignment of the Department of Zoology and Physiology of the St. Petersburg Society of Naturalists. It examines: the biography of Nikolai Vasilyevich Kudryavtsev (1855–1906), a geologist and botanist of the expedition, who led its land detachment, who studied the Kola Peninsula along the Postal Route; scientific results obtained by N. V. Kudryavtsev during the expedition.

Wintertime subarctic new particle formation from Kola Peninsula sulfur emissions

The metallurgical industry in the Kola Peninsula, north-west Russia, form, after Norilsk, Siberia, the second largest source of air pollution in the Arctic and subarctic domain. Sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions from the ore smelters are transported to wide areas, including Finnish Lapland. We performed investigations on concentrations of SO2, aerosol precursor vapours, aerosol and ion cluster size distributions together with chemical composition measurements of freshly formed clusters at the SMEAR I station in Finnish Lapland relatively close (∼ 300 km) to the Kola Peninsula industrial sites during the winter 2019–2020. We show that highly concentrated SO2 from smelter emissions is converted to sulfuric acid (H2SO4) in sufficient concentrations to drive new particle formation hundreds of kilometres downwind from the emission sources, even at very low solar radiation intensities. Observed new particle formation is primarily initiated by H2SO4–ammonia (negative-)ion-induced nucleation. Particle growth to cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) sizes was concluded to result from sulfuric acid condensation. However, air mass advection had a large role in modifying aerosol size distributions, and other growth mechanisms and condensation of other compounds cannot be fully excluded. Our results demonstrate the dominance of SO2 emissions in controlling wintertime aerosol and CCN concentrations in the subarctic region with a heavily polluting industry.

A rare moss Cynodontium suecicum (Rhabdoweisiaceae, Bryophyta) on the Barents Sea coast of the Kola Peninsula: morphological and molecular study

Specimens of the rare species Cynodontium suecicum (Rhabdoweisiaceae, Bryophyta) were collected near Drozdovka Bay on the Barents Sea coast of the Kola Peninsula (Russia) in 2016. They were compared with samples of C. suecicum from the Teriberka area (also the coast of the Barents Sea) gathered in 1977 by R. N. Schljakov. The morphological features of both groups of samples were studied, and nucleotide sequence data for ITS1-2 nrDNA and trnL-F cpDNA were obtained. Molecular analysis suggested C. suecicum as a hybrid that inherited cytoplasmic DNA from C. tenellum and nuclear DNA from Kiaeria blyttii. Taking into account the rather clear morphological delimitation against other species, combined with the stability of genetic characters, we believe that S. suecicum should be retained as a species-level taxon.

Diamonds of Russia's «midnight lands»

Carbon and carbon-rich organics were identified throughout the Kola peninsula. Based on petrological and geochemical study of basic and ultrabasic rock metamorphism, diamond occurrences are assumed in the northwestern Kola peninsula.

The chromian spinels of the Lyavaraka ultrabasic complex, Serpentinite Belt, Kola Peninsula, Russia: Patterns of zoning, hypermagnesian compositions, and early oxidation

ABSTRACT The maximum value of Mg# [= 100Mg/(Mg + Fe2+ + Mn)] in chromium-bearing spinel-group minerals (Chr) in the Ultrabasic Core Zone (UCZ) of the Lyavaraka orthopyroxenite – harzburgite – dunite complex of the Serpentinite Belt in the Kola Peninsula is 54.5–67.5. Such highly magnesian compositions of spinel are associated with notable enrichments of ferric iron (Fe3+# 58–63). There are two generations of accessory Chr in the UCZ unit. The first generation occurs as inclusions in olivine that is not unusually magnesian (Mg# 90.3), and the second is closely associated with serpentine. The compositional series of Chr at Lyavaraka attains more aluminous compositions than was observed in nearby intrusive bodies. The anomalously high level of Mg in Chr, also manifest in ilmenite, is mainly a result of the high intrinsic fugacity of oxygen attained locally in the melt. A progressive buildup in H2O and increase in fO2 likely resulted from efficient vesiculation and selective loss of H2 from the Al-undepleted komatiitic magma crystallizing in a shallow setting. The chromian spinel forming in such a modified magma is virtually unzoned in Mn, and a minor quantity of Mn is also present in olivine and orthopyroxene. In contrast, zinc is strongly partitioned in the core of Chr, as it is relatively incompatible in the coexisting olivine and orthopyroxene at that stage. Zinc efficiently partitioned into the H2O-enriched melt, which crystallized as the pegmatitic orthopyroxenite near the contacts at Lyavaraka. A high potential of oxidation appears to be characteristic of all orthopyroxenite – harzburgite – dunite suites of the Serpentinite Belt formed from a primitive melt of komatiitic composition.