Researchers and international students are analysing the remnants of pingos, mounds of earth-covered ice, in the Drenthe towns of Elp and Schoonloo.
Translation by Traci White
The remnants of the pingos form round holes in the landscape after the ice beneath the soil melts. Drenthe has the most pingo remnants in the Netherlands, and has one of the highest concentrations in the world.
RTV Drenthe reports that land maintenance agency Landschapsbeheer Drenthe, students from the universities of Groningen and Utrecht, and a dozen students from France, Mexico, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Hong Kong, Italy, Ukraine, the United States and Spain through SIW (Stichting Internationale Vrijwilligersprojecten – International Volunteer Project Foundation) are working together on the project.
The aim of the SIW summer school project is to get a better picture of the history of the pingos. Out of 2,500 depressions in the ground across the province, 100 locations are verified pingo remnants.
Danger
The depth of some of the holes means that the research project is not without risk. On Tuesday, the researchers were sent away from a search site by a forest ranger because the depth of the former peat bog was deemed too dangerous for novices.
