17. July 2018
The team of the International Research Training Group "Geo-ecosystems in Transition on the Tibetan Plateau (TransTiP)", funded by DFG, has reached its destination of this year’s field campaign: the research station NAMORS at Lake Nam Co on the Tibetan Plateau. Professor Andreas Hördt from the Institute for Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics reports in a small series of logbook entries about the work at the research station on the roof of the world.
“After we acclimatized to the altitude at the research station at Nam Co for a few days, we have now set off to our individual survey areas. With Björn Riedel, Eike Reinosch, Johannes Buckel and Philip Maurischat I am on my way to a valley about 40 kilometers west of the station. We are one hour late; our equipment did not fit in the two available vehicles. Another pickup had to be ordered.
Driving two hours on a mogul slope along the lake shore, before the road ended completely. Only a narrow lane leads steeply up the mountain through meadows and over scree, often so narrow that the jeep just barely fits through. After a total of three hours we reached our stopover: a Tibetan nomad camp at an altitude of around 5,000 meters, where the nomads let their yaks graze over the summer. Here we set up our own small base camp: small one-man tents for us and our Tibetan and Chinese helpers, and a large kitchen tent in which we sit together in the evening. The Tibetan yak herders occasionally visit us at our tent or sit down with us. We offer something to eat and try to make contact with sparse gestures.
During the day we do our measurements: Eike and Björn map the terrain using laser scanners in order to detect ground movement, Philipp collects water samples to investigate the distribution of nutrients, and Johannes and I look into the ground with geoelectric measurements to quantify the sediment transport.
Tomorrow we move on: we want to go even higher, to a place where satellite images show striking ground movements. Our equipment will be transported by horse, let's see if that works.”
Text: Professor Andreas Hördt from the Institute of Geophysics and Extraterrestrial Physics