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UNDERSTANDING PLANET EARTH

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UNDERSTANDING PLANET EARTH

S2

Prof. Paweł Rowiński, director of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geophysics in Warsaw, talks to Andrzej Jonas.

When we think geophysics, we tend to think of a disci-pline of science that studies the Earth’s crust. But in fact your institute studies the land, water and air...

Your definition is accurate. We examine the Earth’s environment as a whole, which after all is mostly made up of water, not of hard crust. Of course, the atmosphere, the closest layer surrounding the Earth, is also the subject of our research. So we are interested in the atmosphere, lithosphere, hydrosphere, and in human activ-ity in all these environments.

Symbolically, you can say we study our own home and its sur-roundings, the place where we live as humankind. On the one hand, we deal with the basic sciences, trying to answer some fun-damental questions about all the processes of life on our planet. On the other hand, we are working on concrete, everyday, practical is-sues such as fuel and other natural sources of energy. By examining specific processes, we can determine what can be done to improve them. One example is research into the Earth’s water resources, in-cluding the impact of climate change on them. The same applies to research on shale gas deposits and the profitability of their po-tential extraction. Of course, we are less concerned with issues re-lated to economics, and more concerned with those related to the safety of extracting such deposits. Discussion is in progress today on whether or not [an extraction method known as] hydrocracking causes damage to the environment, and whether it impacts the groundwater and surface water levels, and finally whether contami-nated water is dangerous to the environment. Researchers like us conduct research seeking to answer this question.

Above all, we conduct seismic surveys. A large portion of these is commissioned by companies engaged in mining work and those working on issues related to the location of the potential nuclear plants that will be built in Poland. After several years of observation we will be able to decide whether or not the sites selected for the future nuclear power plants are safe seismically.

Can you tell us something about the history of your insti-tute?

It is worth remembering that Poland is where the history of geophysics as a science began. The first department of geophys-ics was launched at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow in the late 19th century. So our geophysical tradition is on a par with those in countries far more developed than Poland. Our institute was established in 1953 as one of the first research institutions of the Polish Academy of Sciences less than a year after the Acad-emy was set up. Initially, before we were authorized, as required under law, to confer doctoral degrees and acquired a sufficient number of independent research workers, we were a research fa-cility based at three observatories, located in Warsaw, Świder [near Warsaw] and [the southern town of ] Racibórz. Those were seismic and magnetic observatories.

In the early decades of our activities our own design offices played an important role, in which we designed scientific equip-ment for use in our own research. But it is necessary to remember that this was a time when, due to an embargo maintained for po-litical reasons, we could not buy similar equipment in the West. So we built it in a sense for our own use and for our colleagues in some other research centers.

LAND, WATER AND AIR

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Especially important was the 1957-1958 period, when Poland decided to take part in the International Year of Geophysics, which brought our discipline of science a lot of funds from the govern-ment. We organized two scientific expeditions in those days. The first was to Vietnam, where we set up another seismic observatory that continues to operate to this day. The second expedition set off to polar regions; a decision was made to build an independent Polish polar research station on Spitsbergen.

Why was the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen chosen?

First, Poland has a polar research tradition dating back to the days when Polish deportees in Russia’s Siberia region, who includ-ed many distinguished scholars, were engaged in such expedi-tions. The first polar expedition in the period after Poland regained its independence took place in the 1920s, which means shortly after Poland reappeared on the map of Europe.

On the other hand, the decision of the communist authorities in Poland at the time to set up our station on Spitsbergen also had a political aspect to it—in the form of establishing a research outpost within the territory of a country that was part of the op-posite bloc. Consequently, despite the fact that the early days of the Polish presence on Spitsbergen were difficult amid efforts to create decent living and working conditions for scientists, thanks to the participation of a large group of enthusiasts—some would even call them adventure seekers—the foundations were laid for the future station within a short time. Spitsbergen, much as the entire Arctic region, was an unusually attractive object of study. Many of the sites there were untouched by man. No wonder then that the Polish station quickly became an important center of re-search in that region.

Today, after many years in the global community of geophysi-cists, Poland is sometimes referred to as an Arctic country, even though no part of its territory is located within this climatic zone. This is how we are referred to by the Norwegians and Canadians, who are aware of the contribution we have made and continue to make to polar research. Naturally, we are also a member of all major international organizations and associations dealing with such research.

Returning to the activities of your institute, how large is your team, and how are research tasks divided up within it?

We have 200 people and are divided up according to area of in-terest, without a strict demarcation as to who is engaged in basic research and who deals with applied research. We conduct both research and infrastructure projects focusing on issues such as fuel, water management and pollution. In recent years we’ve been trying to combine the efforts of our individual teams so that they can respond to universal questions, without limiting themselves to the immediate subject of their research.

It should be emphasized that the funds we get, including some of those that come from the government, grants, and the money

from those placing orders for our services, are primarily intended for applied research. Inevitably, this affects the focus of our activi-ties, even though we are fully aware of the importance of funda-mental sciences.

Geophysics is an expensive discipline. We have to work out in the field, often in very distant and hostile terrain, and deploy our equipment there, which often includes expensive research instru-ments. Typically, geophysical research also requires an extended period of time, and consequently generates substantial costs.

Recently, we secured a project involving the establishment of a new research center in the area of induced seismicity, which means seismicity caused by man, for example as a result of mining and extraction work, injection of carbon dioxide under-ground, and so on. The center is being created in Cracow as part of a major European project for seismic observations. We man-aged to convince our European partners that Poland will be the best location for the center. We’ve received 3.5 million euros for this purpose.

Will the Cracow center provide commercial services—for instance, for mining and extraction companies from Poland and abroad?

The Induced Seismicity Research Infrastructure Center under development will not operate along commercial lines, although undoubtedly it will also provide services to the kind of compa-nies you mentioned. The center’s task is to collect all available data and information useful for research on induced seismicity, and to make this information available in the most convenient form for this kind of work. An important group of users of the center will be industrial users as the providers of infrastructure and recipients of research results. The center will therefore assist in the develop-ment of methods and rules to better manage the exploitation of natural deposits. Thanks to the synergy of science and industry, science will gain access to induced seismicity data collected in industrial centers, and industry will gain access to new but well-tested solutions.

What kind of ties does the institute have with industry at present?

We carry out joint projects and various kinds of studies for large companies such as [Polish copper giant] KGHM Polska Miedź S.A., [oil and gas company] PGNiG, Kompania W´glowa [coal compa-ny], as well as global corporations such as ION and Hutton Energy. As I have already mentioned, most of the projects concern seis-mic imaging of the Earth’s crust and the environmental impact of a specific enterprise. Our hydrologists examine the functioning of planned hydroelectric power plants from this angle, evaluat-ing for example how far the hot water stream ejected by a power plant will reach and how much it will affect the environment. Our evaluations are later used by designers, ecologists, biologists and chemists examining other risks.

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Much is being said about the need to predict the move-ments of the Earth’s crust and volcanic eruptions. Does the institute conduct research in this area as well?

Absolutely. We are talking about the most complex basic re-search related to the understanding of plate tectonics and pro-cesses taking place throughout the Earth’s crust. We have achieve-ments in this field; we define seismic hazard areas and create risk maps. But no one in the world has so far succeeded in predicting the exact date or time of an earthquake in a given region or an explosion of a specific volcano.

Poland is a seismically safe area; when assessing the loca-tion of future nuclear power plants, do you nonetheless analyze the activity of the Earth’s crust?

Of course. In Poland, especially in the Podkarpacie region [in the south of the country] seismic tremors are regularly recorded. They are too weak to be felt by people or to be troublesome. During the construction of a nuclear power plant, assessments are made of how strong the reinforcements of buildings must be to withstand the maximum vibrations of the Earth’s surface that occur there. So it is possible to build such power plants in seismic regions. Even in the case of the Fukushima nuclear disaster the reactor did not explode after all, and the damage was the result of a tsunami, not of the seismic shock itself. That power plant withstood the earth-quake, but it had been built too close to the sea, because its de-signers ignored the danger of a huge wave.

So the studies we conduct in Poland are closely linked to finan-cial issues; the point is to not spend money unnecessarily on ex-cessive reinforcements that do not reflect the potential real level of the regional seismic hazard.

Does the institute work with foreign partners, especially when it comes to practical applied research?

We wouldn’t be able to function without permanent interna-tional cooperation. We are recognized around the world as an in-stitute and as a GeoPlanet Earth and Planetary Research Center, comprising five units of the Polish Academy of Sciences. We have also been invited to join GEO8, the European Earth Sciences Re-search Alliance, which groups eight research centers considered the most important in European research in this field. We are one of the founders of this European group of geophysicists. For now, we are mainly exchanging information, but I hope that eventually we will be able to use joint research infrastructure, borrow equip-ment, carry out joint experiments, etc. For years, we have been at the forefront internationally when it comes to seismic studies of the lithosphere, though there were times when we had to bor-row equipment, for example from our American colleagues. For-tunately, we have such a reputation that scientific collaboration with the institute was an obvious decision for American centers. However, it would certainly be desirable to create a big European structure coordinating joint research.

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We are interested in the

atmosphere, lithosphere,

hydrosphere, and in human activity

in all these environments.

S5

Prof. Roman Teisseyre, who was director of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geophysics from 1970 to 1972, talks to Witold Żygulski.

What were the beginnings of geo-physics in Poland?

Many great Polish scientists studied geophysics at the end of the 19th century. They included Maurycy Pius-Rudzki, a professor at the geophysics department of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow. The department was established in 1895 as the first department of geo-physics in the world. Poland’s other great geophysicist was Stanisław Kramsztyk, one of the first people in Europe to popularize exact sci-ences such as physics, astronomy and geophysics. In 1915, construc-tion began on the first Polish magnetic observatory in Świder near Warsaw. In 1921, the observatory started regular measurements of the Earth’s magnetic field and later, it also started monitoring atmo-spheric electricity, air pollution and background gamma radiation. The facility became a geophysical observatory in 1928 and has func-tioned as one ever since.

The Institute of Geophysics started in 1952 as a very small estab-lishment called the Department of Geophysics. Polish geophysics reached a milestone several years later when the 1957-1958 season was declared the International Year of Geophysics. That was when our researchers embarked on two expeditions. One took them to the is-land of Spitsbergen, where Polish geophysicists had worked before 1939. The other expedition, with me at the helm, went to Vietnam. The two geophysical stations that we set up in Vietnam are still there, so you could say we made a major contribution to the development of geophysics in that region.

In the early 1970s, a part of our institute became the Department of Oceanography, which later developed into an institute in its own right. It is now our partner research center whose fields of study in-clude marine geophysics.

Geophysics is a global science and effective geophysical research requires collaboration with partners abroad. What major international programs have Polish geophysicists taken part in and what results have they achieved?

The International Year of Geophysics gave an international angle to our institute’s projects. We have since had very good contacts with countries like Japan and Italy. I frequently traveled to Japan for many years until 2000 and Japanese experts came to visit us in Poland. My junior colleague, Kacper Rafał Rybicki, traveled to Japan as well.

Young, budding scientists took part in regular exchange programs, which as the years went by produced a network of international con-nections around the world. Prof. Adam Dziewoński, whose career be-gan at the Department of Geophysics, settled in the United States and won international acclaim for his research into the interior of the Earth. Andrzej Kijko, who started as a seismologist at our institute, devised algorithms for statistical surveys of different kinds of earth-quakes, including intraplate earthquakes. After he left Poland, he be-came an expert in seismic risks and threats posed by other disasters, especially those that nuclear power plants, airports, dams and other such structures are exposed to. Kijko has for years worked in South Africa and he still works with our researchers.

We were among the pioneers of research into elastic rotational stress of seismic origin. This is an innovative field of geophysical re-search. The studies were hard to start, but it had to be done, for a number of reasons. For many years, stress and deformations of this kind were never even taken into account in seismology. The common belief was that they hardly existed and even if there were any, they were instantly suppressed. Today, dissertations are written around the world with descriptions of such deformations, analyzing how these deformations impact seismic fields and, for example, buildings. We started measuring these deformations at the end of last century and the first international workshop in this field of research was held in 2007 in California. The fourth workshop is scheduled to take place next year in Germany.

We have also worked for many years with the Czech Republic (and Czechoslovakia before that), mainly in the area of mining geophysics. With these partners we have held international symposiums on min-ing geophysics and, more recently, environmental geophysics.

Our institute conducted research into the electrical resistance of soil and rocks. Part of the research took place inside a copper mine and attempts were made to incorporate the research into the mine’s risk assessment system. While conducting such research, we worked with the former Soviet republics of Russia and Georgia.

One of the greatest achievements of the Institute of Geophysics staff is the network of seismological, magnetic and geophysical obser-vatories we have created, maintained and regularly modernized. We have made them part of the global observation and data exchange system. Important here is the ability of our researchers to establish good contacts, while our partners abroad proved happy to collabo-rate. These partners mainly come from Western and Northern Europe. One of the key moments in the institute’s history was the launch of the Central Geophysical Observatory in Belsk, central Poland.

Research into the deep structure of the lithosphere, which the in-stitute mainly conducts in Europe, has been made possible by the enormous support we have received from abroad, the United States in particular. Also of key importance is the determination, imagina-tion and perseverance of our researchers, who are headed by Prof. Aleksander Guterch.

MORE THAN 100 YEARS OF RESEARCH

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Researchers from the Department of Lithospheric Research, part of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geophysics, can be regarded as historians specializing in the evolution of the Earth; seismic phenomena in the planet’s lithosphere speak volumes about the past 3.5 billion years.

The lithosphere, the outer layer of the Earth, comprises the crust and upper mantle. This is where all available mineral resources

are located. Research into what lies deep under the surface of the Earth allows scientists to determine the structure and physical state of the planet and understand how it has evolved. Such stud-ies are based on geophysical research, especially on methods that analyze the propagation of seismic waves generated in the Earth’s crust by natural earthquakes and manmade vibrations such as ex-plosions.

The Department of Lithospheric Research uses active seismic methods that penetrate the lithosphere up to a depth of 100 ki-lometers. The most important body of research concerns crust that is 30-40 km thick on continents and a dozen or so kilometers

under the oceans. The research-ers are mostly interested in Cen-tral Europe, as the area between the Baltic, Adriatic and Black Seas has an extremely complicated geological structure and tectonic history. Geological maps of this part of Europe show that Poland has the most complex mix of geological structures in the re-gion. Northeastern Poland sits on the Eastern European craton—an old and stable part of the conti-nental lithosphere—which is up

to 3.5 billion years old, while the west of the country is formed by the tip of the paleozoic platform of Central and Western Europe, which is 300-400 million years old. Pushing in from the south is the Alpide orogenic (mountain-forming) belt, whose Polish section is part of the Carpathian mountains. These three immense tectonic formations converge in southeastern Poland, making the region a crucial source of information on geodynamic processes that have taken place in Europe. In order to understand these processes, the

PEERING DEEP UNDER THE EARTH’S CRUST

Prof. Tomasz Janik

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Department of Lithospheric Re-search has for many years worked closely with partners in Western and Southern Europe as well as in Ukraine and Belarus. Their joint ef-forts include a host of large-scale active seismic experiments. These have employed state-of-the-art seismic stations brought in from many European countries, the United States and Canada. In re-cent years, much of this research has been focused on Ukraine.

After 2007, a lot of research projects were carried out on six fault lines, aiming to identify the structure of the ridge of the Eastern European craton and the Southeastern European extension of the Teisseyre-Tornquist fault zone that cuts through Poland. Prof. Tomasz Janik, who heads the Department of Lithospheric Research, says his team led all these projects. “This was because of our experience and know-how in preparing experiments and then gathering and interpreting data,” says Janik. “We are one of the world’s leading research centers.”

Problems that geophysicists encounter in their work are often of a completely non-scientific nature. Prof. Aleksander Guterch, who has worked at the Department of Lithospheric Research the lon-gest and who used to head the department, says that national bor-ders constitute a major hindrance to geodynamic studies. “Coping with regulations and restrictions is nothing short of a nightmare, as is trying to obtain permission for specific research projects,” says Guterch. “Americans are surprised to see that despite so many po-litical borders, geodynamic research is nevertheless conducted in Europe.” It was not until European integration happened that a radical change took place and expensive seismic equipment could finally be shipped across borders without complications.

Active seismic research uses seismic waves set off by explo-sions. Explosive charges used in such experiments range from several hundred kilograms of TNT to over a metric ton. “I started such experiments in Poland in the late 1960s,” says Guterch. Af-ter communism fell, researchers from the Department of Litho-spheric Research initiated four major international seismic experi-ments in Central and Southern Europe. The projects were called Polonaise ’97, Celebration 2000, ALP 2002, and Sudetes 2003, and were carried out in 1997-2003. New-generation seismic data ob-tained from the experiments will be used by researchers for many years to come. Some of the data is so complicated that the De-partment of Lithospheric Research is still working to interpret it. So far, findings from the experiments have been cited in around 100 publications, including international science magazines and prestigious monographs. The four research projects were carried out as a joint international effort by 35 research and industry orga-nizations from 17 European countries, the United States and Can-ada. The experiments were conducted on seismic profiles with a total length of over 20,000 km.

Celebration 2000 (short for Central European Lithospheric Ex-periment Based on Refraction) was the largest of the four projects, with experiments conducted in western Russia, Belarus, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary and Germany. Seismic waves were generated at 147 so-called shot points and recorded by 2,340 cutting-edge seismic stations brought from European countries and the United States. It is estimated that at the time of the experiment, the expensive seismic stations used in it accounted for 70 percent of all of the world’s equipment of this kind. In order to prepare the shot points, a huge number of holes were bored in the ground, each around 30 meters deep and packed with 50 kilograms of TNT.

The seismic waves generated by the explosions penetrated up to 100 km into the lithosphere. They were registered along speci-fied profile lines by stations placed every 2 km. This dense array of seismic stations and lines enabled the researchers to record seis-mic waves from all shot points and coming from different direc-tions. The data obtained was subsequently used to identify the spatial structure of the Earth’s crust in the studied areas.

The Celebration 2000 experiment covered an area of around 500,000 square kilometers and involved around 800 technical staff and several dozen researchers. It lasted 30 days and nights. In

Prof. Aleksander Guterch

S8

a special report, the European Foundation for Science described Celebration 2000 as the largest research project of this kind in the history of world geophysics. The Oxford Guide to Modern Science (2003), a special publication of the University of Oxford, named Celebration 2000 as one of the experiments that brought science into the 21st century.

According to Guterch, technological barriers encountered dur-ing research into what is hiding inside the Earth are incomparably harder to overcome than in space exploration. Boreholes reaching just 3-4 km under the Earth’s surface cost around zl.30 million. The deepest holes that the Americans have bored in the Gulf of Mexico reach 12 km inside the crust. “Consequently, geophysical methods are the only efficient way to study the interior of the Earth and seismic methods are the most important of them,” says Guterch.

Active seismic methods employing explosives have also been used in large-scale explorations of the deep structure of the crust in polar regions, the Western Antarctic and the Svalbard Archipel-ago in the Arctic. In 1976-2010, experts from the Department of Lithospheric Research organized seven expeditions to the Arctic and five to the Antarctic. The areas selected for research in the two regions are of key importance to the geodynamics of the Earth. A large amount of the research was carried out as part of internation-al projects. Before the Polish researchers arrived in the Antarctic, nobody had carried out such a systematic series of experiments and Antarctic research is considered a “Polish specialty” to this day.

In recent years, a new kind of broadband seafloor seismic sta-tion has been introduced. These devices can stay submerged up to 6 km underwater for around one year. After they are recovered, data analysis begins, presenting new opportunities for research-ers in polar regions. Economic issues have recently boosted the importance of seismic research in these areas. Guterch says that crude oil deposits in the Arctic are estimated at around 20 percent of total global resources and deposits of natural gas at 30 percent.

Highlighting how important scientific research has become to industry and the economy, the researchers from Department of Lithospheric Research work closely with Poland’s Environment Ministry and Polish natural gas giant PGNiG. “We have been per-suading young oil industry experts that in order to make progress in the search for energy resources these days, you need to pre-cisely identify the deep structure of the Earth’s crust,” says Guterch.

“This is the first time ever that a country from the

new Europe—the countries that joined the European Union just under 11 years ago—has been appointed a leader of a large European research project of this kind,” says Prof. Stanisław Lasocki, head of the Department of Seismology of the Cracow-based Institute of Geophysics, part of the Polish Academy of Sciences. The EPOS program, launched in 2010, will continue until 2040.

The Department of Seismology deals with observational seismology in two different areas: earthquakes (natural seismic events) and induced (anthropogenic) seismicity. The latter is seismic activity caused by humans, chiefly the mining of natu-ral resources. It is caused by underground mines, geothermal energy facilities, both conventional and unconventional ex-traction of hydrocarbons (crude oil and natural gas), under-ground storage of liquids or gases and other technological activities. Filling tanks linked to hydroelectric power plants or water dams can also cause effects that trigger the natural ten-dency of rock to crack. Sequestration of carbon dioxide looks set to be another major problem in the future.

The first case that can be described as induced seismicity dates back to the 18th century. The case in question was de-scribed in English historical records and concerned a mine. Sometimes human activity is only the trigger, initiating a pro-cess that could have eventually occurred naturally in a rock for-mation over dozens or hundreds of thousands of years.

INDUCED SEISMICITYPolish scientists will soon manage an integrated European database of induced seismicity and coordinate the work of researchers from 16 countries taking part in the European Plate Observing System (EPOS), Europe’s biggest infrastructure project in Earth sciences. The management center will be set up in Cracow.

Prof. Stanisław Lasocki

S9

The scale of induced seismic events ranges from very small incidents to the force of natural earthquakes. A tragedy in Chi-na in 2008 when at least 70,000 people were killed after an earthquake of a magnitude of 7 on the Richter scale may have been—the debate here is still ongoing—triggered by human activity. Earthquakes in Italy in the Emilia Romagna region in 2012, the most costly ever in Europe, were likely triggered by oil and gas mining.

Natural earthquakes are disasters stemming from the nature of the dynamics of the Earth’s interior and humans have no influence over them. They can only try to predict them (still a rather distant prospect) and use construction methods in endangered regions that prevent the destruction of buildings. Induced seismicity, on the other hand, is caused by human activity and here—at least theoretically—the danger can be reduced.

“A sensible compromise is needed between essential hu-man industrial activity and environmental protection,” says La-socki. “Induced seismicity is a field of conflict. On one side you have those who focus on the economy, on production, while on the other you have those who want things to stay calm. Be-tween them are we, the scientists, whose task is to bring about accord,” he adds.

According to Lasocki, Europeans have become a little over-sensitive regarding the impact of industrial activity on people and the environment. One prominent example was a small tremor in the northern Swiss city of Basel in 2006 that caused little damage but immediately resulted in a local geothermal well being shut down. The project had cost 50 million euros. The tremor put in question the entire future of geothermal energy in Europe. Germany also started closing down geo-thermal wells. A tremor of a magnitude of 2.3 that occurred in Blackpool, northeast England, put in question shale gas extrac-tion in Europe.

“It’s become popular to scare people. That’s why our role is to offer reliable information on possible dangers while moni-toring industry so that it does not try risky projects using haz-ardous technologies in a given area,” says Lasocki.

One type of work carried out by the Department of Seis-mology is research. Experts observe different phenomena of interest to them without any interference from possible cus-tomers expecting simple answers. Such research is financed with public funds.

Another area of work involves studies and projects for commercial customers. One example is a project that has been conducted for 12 years for the Hydrotechnical Unit of copper giant KGHM Polska Miedź. The project involves pe-riodical studies of seismic hazards in Europe’s biggest post-flotation mineral waste repository, Żelazny Most, in southern Poland. If its embankment were damaged as a result of a seismic tremor, an environmental disaster of an unbelievable scale would ensue.

“We don’t accept invitations regarding very short-term projects or those not requiring expertise; we aim to operate on a higher level, where strictly scientific work is required,” Lasocki says.

The time span of hazard assessments is usually deter-mined by the period over which industrial activity will be conducted in a given area. This can vary from months in the case of a local seismic process, to a dozen or more years when the overall induced seismicity in a particular region is to be taken into account. Seismic events that are not in-duced but triggered by human activity are a completely different matter: studies of this phenomenon have to cover entire geological eras and natural processes that have to be investigated in order to assess to what extent human activ-ity can change them, speeding up the occurrence of a pos-sible disaster.

“We don’t accept invitations

regarding very short-term projects

or those not requiring expertise; we

aim to operate on a higher level,

where strictly scientific work is

required,” Lasocki says.

S10

As part of its two flagship research projects, the

department measures solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation near the Earth’s surface and the to-tal content of ozone in the at-mosphere. The department’s research into ozone began in the early 1960s while studies focusing on ultraviolet radia-tion started in the 1970s. The projects are some of the world’s longest-running in this field of research.

The term atmospheric ozone has a broader meaning than just the ozone layer that surrounds the Earth 22 kilometers above the planet, protecting life from the harmful effects of solar ultraviolet radiation. Certain amounts of ozone are also found elsewhere in the atmosphere. Near ground level, ozone can be harmful to people, animals and plants when it be-comes a component of smog. Janusz Jarosławski, Ph.D. who heads the atmospheric ozone and solar radiation division of the Department of Atmospheric Physics, says ozone is a prod-uct of natural photochemical processes in the atmosphere. While people do not directly produce ozone, natural processes can be intensified by air pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and hydrocarbons. “Thankfully, ground-level ozone concentrations have started to decline in recent years as a result of cuts in emissions of ozone precursors, including strict regulations on exhaust gases from cars,” says Jarosławski. Ozone is classified as a greenhouse gas, but its impact on the temperature of the atmosphere is not as strong as that of carbon dioxide. It does, however, have a significant impact on the stratosphere, whose temperature is naturally raised due to the presence of ozone.

“The measurements we have conducted for over 50 years at the Central Geophysical Laboratory in Belsk [south of Warsaw] have since the beginning been part of a global atmospheric ozone measurement network,” says Jarosławski. “The network’s database is located in Canada. We send our results there on a daily basis, helping to create a global picture of the ozone layer. This data, presented as a global ozone map, is available online at http://exp-studies.tor.ec.gc.ca/e/ozone/Curr_allmap_n.htm.”

The Department of Atmospheric Physics is also involved in a European project called COST that aims to establish an au-

tomated ozone measurement network for Europe within the global network.

“The term ozone hole is used with reference to the Antarc-tic,” says Jarosławski. “Every spring (autumn in Poland), ozone vanishes at a certain altitude over the Antarctic, reducing the ozone layer to just a third of its normal thickness.” That triggers an increase in the amount of UV rays that reach the Earth. In the 1990s, a similar process took place over Europe, but to a much lesser extent. Excessive ultraviolet radiation leads to can-cer, skin lesions and eye problems. Our bodies need UV rays, however, to synthesize vitamin D. At the geographical latitude where Poland is located, the production of vitamin D stops in humans in winter, resulting in vitamin D deficiencies. This problem is studied at the Department of Atmospheric Phys-ics as well. The department’s researchers have teamed up with dermatologists to seek ways to use ultraviolet radiation in the treatment of skin diseases such as psoriasis.

Another major field of research at the Department of Atmo-spheric Physics is the electricity of atmospheric phenomena. Jarosławski compares the Earth’s atmosphere to a global elec-tric circuit. “We try to measure the currents that flow through this circuit,” says Jarosławski. “Everything that happens above us, in the ionosphere, for instance, affects our lives and things such as radio communications.” Electric phenomena include thunderstorms, making them a natural subject of interest for the Department of Atmospheric Physics. The researchers have a system to detect atmospheric discharges that allows them to determine where and what kind of lightning struck at a given time. This data finds practical application in the design of light-ning protection systems.

The research on electric processes in the atmosphere is con-ducted at the department’s observatory in Świder near War-saw . Established before World War II, this is one of the oldest facilities of its kind in Poland.

The department also pursues theoretical research on the boundary layer of the atmosphere that in summer stretches from the ground to a height of 2-3 km.

In the early 1990s, the Department of Atmospheric Physics began research on the properties of atmospheric aerosols—solid but very small particles and droplets of liquids (with the exception of droplets of water in clouds) that are suspended in the air.

In the lowest layers of the atmosphere, such particles and droplets are inhaled by people. Atmospheric aerosols miti-

EYE ON THE ATMOSPHERE The Department of Atmospheric Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geophysics conducts research into ozone, ultraviolet solar radiation, air pollutants and electric processes in the atmosphere.

Janusz Jarosławski

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gate the greenhouse ef-fect by facilitating cloud formation and directly reducing the amount of sunlight that penetrates the atmosphere. Atmo-spheric aerosol mea-surements employ Lidar devices that combine laser and radar technol-ogy to determine the vertical distribution of aerosols. The Depart-ment of Atmospheric Physics is a member of the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (Earlinet).

The department uses similar methods to monitor the amount of pollutants in the air, including ground-level ozone. The de-partment’s measuring station is part of Poland’s air pollution monitoring network. Apart from monitoring the amount of pollutants, the network issues warnings about temporary de-clines in air quality. Pollutants monitored and researched by the Department of Atmospheric Physics include ozone, suspended dust, nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide.

In 2010, the Depart-ment of Atmospheric Physics studied the im-pact of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano eruptions in Ice-land. “We tried to see if dust from the eruptions appeared over Poland,” says Jarosławski. “The ash cloud turned out to be much smaller than feared.”

The Institute of Geo-physics has for many years worked with the Chief Inspectorate of En-

vironmental Protection. Polish government agencies tasked the institute with monitoring the ozone layer when, in 1987, a group of countries signed the Montreal Protocol and commit-ted themselves to taking action to prevent ozone layer deple-tion. After joining the EU, Poland has been faced with tougher requirements concerning air quality control. Air quality moni-toring stations in Polish provinces have since been modern-ized. EU regulations require that Poland meet new air quality standards over the next several years.

ALL ABOUT WATERFloods and droughts, river flow and the spread of pollution are some of the topics studied by the Department of Hydrology and Hydrodynamics of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geophysics. The department also studies the impact of climate change on hydrological processes and works to ensure more reliable forecasts of hydrological events.

The department is headed by Prof. Jarosław Napiórkowski.

“In a nutshell, what we do is study how water circulates in nature,” says Napiórkowski. “There is a very practical aspect to our research, as it enables forecasts of hydrological pro-cesses that affect the lives of people who populate different areas,” says Napiórkowski.

Research by the department, which began in the 1970s, in-cludes water management.

After a disastrous flood that hit southwestern Poland in 1997, experts from the Department of Hydrology and Hydrodynam-ics carefully studied how the flood developed on the Nysa

Kłodzka River, a major tributary of the Oder, the second lon-gest river in Poland. The findings allowed the researchers to propose a decison support system to assist local authorities in decisions regarding the Nysa Kłodzka River’s catchment in order to reduce flood risks on the Oder River.

The Department of Hydrology and Hydrodynamics has for years studied the Narew River catchment in eastern Poland, be-tween the river’s headwaters and the border of the Narew River National Park. During the communist era, a reservoir called Si-emianówka was created in that area to supply drinking water to the nearby city of Białystok. According to Napiórkowski, it is de-batable whether the reservoir is still needed. “As far as the Na-rew River is concerned, floods are actually an advantage. They help preserve the region’s natural assets,” says Napiórkowski. “Flood waters in springtime do not cause any major financial damage and they are extremely beneficial to nature. We have researched the reservoir’s impact on water flows in the upper

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Narew River valley as well as on the quality of the water itself. We used an experimental method to investigate the trans-port of pollutant. We put a harmless dye into the water just downstream of the bridge at Suraż (eastern Poland) and then analyzed how it propagates down the river, tracing changes in concentration levels. Our observations continued for 48 hours on a 20-kilometer section of the river.” In another experiment, the researchers put a larger amount of the dye in a section right below the Siemianówka reservoir. Over the following week, they collected water samples on a 90-kilometer stretch of the Narew River at five-minute intervals. It was the largest such ex-perimental project in this part of Europe, resulting in a number of publications, some of which were presented at international conferences in Venice and Vancouver.

The Department of Hydrology and Hydrodynamics also works to refine methods to assess maximum annual flows, using state-of-the-art statistical techniques such as extreme value analysis. The results are used to optimize construction parameters for new hydraulic structures, including river em-bankments, bridges and dams.

The department has recently been researching flood wave transformations on the Vistula River between the town of San-domierz and Warsaw. To this end, the researchers have used two of the most popular simulation models, one developed in the Netherlands and one in the United States. The models help them assess flood risks in individual areas, but to do that, the researchers need to analyze the shape of the river bed and other features, such as the bed’s roughness on each section of the river. The bed changes each time the river swells, which is why measurements need to be performed practically every

year so that digital maps of the area can be kept up to date. Modern equipment makes forecasts much easier to draw up than several decades ago.

Other research in the Vistula River catchment concerns thermal discharges from power plants and their impact on water quality. The team at the Department of Hydrology and Hydrodynamics also pursue purely experimental research into water flow in rivers to develop models of river bed trans-formation. Such studies take place in many countries around the world, but they are expensive and time-consuming. They require the involvement of many people, because expensive equipment used in the research cannot be left unattended. The most basic measuring devices, called divers, are sub-merged in water for up to a year to collect and record data

every 15 minutes.The Department of Hydrology

and Hydrodynamics takes part in various international projects and has for many years worked closely with the Norwegian Water Resourc-es and Energy Directorate in Oslo, Norway. Projects funded under the Norwegian Financial Mechanism include research on the impact of climate change on extreme hydro-logical events. The project team, led by Prof. Renata Romanowicz, has been recently joined by two Ethio-pian researchers. Napiórkowski says the project team has been gather-ing data and comparing a range of parameters to identify the common features of drainage basins in Poland and Norway. “We study phenomena that occur in both countries and predict those that might occur as a result of projected climate change

over a time span of approximately 80 years,” says Napiórkowski. “We try to estimate the increase of temperature, changes in precipitation and so on. We use the findings and estimates to compile information for policy makers.”

The Department of Hydrology and Hydrodynamics works with three similar institutes in Britain, focusing on water qual-ity research. Experts from Britain took part in experiments that the Polish researchers conducted in the upper Narew River catchment. Since the 1980s, the Department of Hydrology and Hydrodynamics has also worked closely with researchers in Ireland. The department’s members have spent many years in Ireland on internships that have led to a number of frequently quoted articles.

The department has 19 staff members, including 14 re-searchers, four postgraduate students and one maintenance worker.

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Scientists working there carry out research into glaciology,

hydrology, seismology, changes in the atmosphere, and even space research.

“Our research focuses chiefly on Spitsbergen,” says Prof. Piotr Głowacki, head of the polar and marine research department. “We are starting to expand our research program to incorporate projects in the Antarctic, including a second station that was in operation in the 1970s but has since been closed.”

The department oversees the Stanisław Siedlecki Polar Station on Spitsbergen and the Antoni B. Dobrowolski Polar Station in the Antarctic, in the Bunger Oasis. Both were set up in 1957 to mark the international year of geophysics.

The department also works with the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Biochemistry and Biophysics, which is responsible for the Henryk Arctowski Station, also in the Antarctic. All the polar stations are carrying out a program of geophysical research with a special focus on glaciological research. Scientists are studying hydrological phenomena, glacierized catchments, permafrost and processes occurring at sea in a changing climate.

“One special aspect of our work involves adjusting new geophys-ical methods to polar conditions,” Głowacki says. “Very often they have to be adapted to extreme conditions and our Hornsund sta-tion serves as a testing ground.” Among other things, Polish special-ists are taking part in developing a method for interpreting radar images of glaciers and interpreting phenomena occurring inside glaciers. Also garnering growing interest around the world is an acoustic method for assessing the amount of glacier “calving,” or the process of chunks of ice breaking off glaciers.

Whereas the part of a glacier that is above water is easy to moni-tor, the much bigger underwater part is not; an acoustic method using geophones developed by one of the department’s Ph.D. stu-dents enables scientists to assess how much ice is breaking away or dropping into the sea.

There are many areas in which the Department of Polar Re-search works with the best scientific research centers in Poland and

around the world. Examples include NASA’s proposal for the Polish polar station to be used for testing robots that will later be used in space, studying the ice caps of Jupiter’s moon Europa, for example. In all, 28 Polish and 32 foreign scientific institutions are involved in such joint projects.

The department’s specialists have spent many years studying the 56-sq-km Hans glacier on Spitsbergen, one of the world’s bench-mark glaciers, meaning that it is continually monitored. This moni-toring enables detailed data to be gathered on the dynamics of glacier reaction to climate change—change to which glaciers are very sensitive.

“Over the past 20 years we have focused the attention of leading world glaciology experts on this glacier,” Głowacki says. “You could say that it is the glacier providing the greatest amount of data for interdisciplinary research and analyses.”

The Spitsbergen station is a European Research Platform where international research projects are carried out. It fulfills the high-est environmental standards. Every year about 70 scientists pass through the station, around 80 percent of them Poles. Another 50 specialists make use of a Polish expedition ship that sails to Spits-bergen twice in the summer season. In exchange, the department’s young scientists can undertake traineeships at the world’s leading research centers.

In a recently completed European research project called Ice-2Sea, scientists calculated the current rate at which the sea is rising as a result of global warming and glacier melting. The European Commission recognized it as one of the three best Earth science projects of the European Union’s 7th Framework Program. The de-partment’s scientists are also involved in building the SIOS moni-toring system for the European sector of the Arctic, in the Svalbard archipelago. In addition, seismological observations are conducted all the time—the area near which the Polish station is located is where the North American and Eurasian tectonic plates are drifting apart. The processes occurring there, including those taking place on the sea bottom, are still poorly researched, making them a focus of interest for scientists. Finally, Polish specialists also monitor the spreading of air pollution, sending regular reports to the world’s leading institutions.

The only facility of its kind in the European sector of the Arctic, the Polish station hourly sends out a package of meteorological data that is used by weather forecasters around the world.

KEY ROLE FOR POLES IN POLAR RESEARCHThe Hornsund Polish Polar Station on the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen is the flagship facility of the Department of Polar and Marine Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geophysics.

Prof. Piotr Głowacki

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The Hornsund Station (pictured above) and the presence of Pol-ish scientists in the Arctic are also useful to other institutions, es-pecially the Polish Foreign Ministry and the Environment Ministry.

According to Prof. Głowacki, predicting changes and human adaptation to new conditions will become a fundamental task for polar researchers in the coming decades. “We are unable to coun-teract most processes occurring in nature,” he says, “and therefore the ability to adjust quickly to inevitable changes is becoming of key importance.” Symptoms of these changes are most observable in the far North.

One area that is likely to grow in importance is research con-ducted in the Earth’s ionosphere to monitor the activity of the sun. When solar activity increases, this could pose a threat to space-based technologies, especially satellites, which could be damaged by plasma emitted by the Sun (solar wind).

Another vital research area is the ice “plug” separating the Barents Sea, and its cold current, from the Greenland Sea and its warm cur-rent—part of the Gulf Stream. Over the past 110 years this plug has shrunk by 17 kilometers and currently measures just 5 km and is less than 200 meters thick. When it cracks, which scientists say could happen by 2030, local circulation of sea currents could be activated, which in turn could cause serious weather changes in almost all of Europe. Sea currents generate low air pressure systems and consequently cyclones or hurricanes.

“If a new area of low pressure center formation emerges near Spitsbergen, like the one existing near Iceland today, the effects of these changes could be felt not just in Scandinavia but even in Po-land,” Głowacki says.

Forecasting “space weather” and its impact on weather and cli-mate change is another completely new research area. This issue is related to the changing behavior of the polar vortices above the Earth’s poles, which sometimes carry very cold masses of air into middle latitudes. The Department of Polar and Marine Research will conduct such research in cooperation with Poland’s Space Re-search Center.

TRACING CONTINENTAL DRIFTPaleomagnetism is a relatively new field in Earth sciences that offers a unique insight into how continents were formed and how they have drifted over hundreds of millions of years.

The principles and methods of paleomagnetic research

are based on analyzing the natural magnetic orientation of rocks, both sedimentary and igneous. Such analysis is aimed at identifying primary magne-tization—the magnetization of rock when it was formed. All rock contains magnetically ac-tive materials. When rock forms, these arrange themselves ac-cording to geomagnetic field lines, the same field that affects a compass needle, for example.

Minerals behave exactly the same: they arrange themselves towards the Earth’s magnetic pole.

When rock changes its location due to continental drift, for example, the paleomagnetic direction fixed within it also changes its location.

“Many millions of years later, when we identify the rock’s fixed magnetization direction, it is completely different and no longer indicates the direction of today’s magnetic poles,” says Prof. Marek Lewandowski from the Paleomagnetic Laboratory at the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Scienc-es. “The difference between the primary and present direction is a measure of the path traveled by a continent or a piece of continental or oceanic crust,” he adds.

Step by step, by studying the natural magnetization of in-creasingly older rocks, scientists can trace how the magneti-zation direction has changed and on this basis calculate the pole’s coordinates in different geological eras. The result is a map charting the movement of the Earth’s magnetic poles. Such maps are drawn for different continents.

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This is the first step to reproducing the paleogeographic situation in early geological eras.

“That is the essence of the method and also its most classic and spectacular application. It was the basis for proving that continental drift, as posited by German geophysicist Alfred Wegener in the early 20th century, did actually take place,” Le-wandowski explains.

Such studies brought evidence that the Atlantic is a rela-tively young ocean as far as geological history goes: it was formed about 200 million years ago. That was the beginning of the disintegration of Pangea, a super-continent that still ex-isted in the early Jurassic period. With the help of the paleo-magnetic method, it is possible to trace step by step how the Atlantic opened up, and also the changing configuration not only of America in relation to Europe but also Africa in relation to South America and other continents. That is how the paleo-geographic history of the Earth’s surface is re-created.

That is not all, though: the continental drift that scientists discover is always a result of the convection of rocks, which slowly migrate, drifting from deep in the Earth’s mantle all the way to the surface. Continental drift does not happen because continents wander of their own accord; it reflects what is go-ing on inside the Earth. Paleomagnetic records also reflect the state of the Earth’s magnetic field which today protects peo-ple from solar wind and high-energy ionized particles and is formed in the Earth’s liquid core.

“Paleomagnetism enables us to trace the movement of con-tinents, the dynamics of the Earth’s interior and the history of its core. That’s what is unique about this method: it was the cause of a revolution that took place in Earth sciences in the mid-20th century,” Lewandowski says. “When we found out that the continents were drifting and in addition that the geo-magnetic field can switch its polarity and the poles can trade places, it opened our eyes to the fact that the Earth is an ex-tremely dynamic planet,” he adds.

Paleomagnetic research uses two kinds of methods: physical and chemical. The former consist of placing a rock sample in a magnetometer in a zero geomagnetic field. Next, extremely sensitive sensors pick up the natural remnant magnetization. The piece of rock is treated like a very weak magnet—its direc-tion of magnetization is identified.

Using chemical methods, on the other hand, scientists treat a rock sample with different substances, which enables them to find out what materials are magnetization carriers in the rock. On this basis they learn about the rock’s history, for ex-ample if it was ever subjected to high temperature.

For many years the Institute of Geophysics’ Paleomagnetic Laboratory has been studying rocks from the Apennines, through the Dinaric Mountains (Croatia), the Ardennes and Vosges, the Carpathians, all the way to Norway and Spitsber-gen, in research conducted in collaboration with local scien-tific partner institutions. “Without international cooperation we would have nothing to do. For paleomagnetic research

to make sense it has to be conducted globally,” Lewandowski says.

Research is also being conducted in environmental paleo-magnetism. This largely involves linking the amount of mag-netically active materials to changes in the natural environ-ment. For example, scientists study changes in the number of magnetically active molecules in very fine dust that forms pollution in the Earth’s atmosphere.

“This is fundamental research, but it has a practical aspect to it,” according to Lewandowski. “If we didn’t know the history of continental drift, if we didn’t understand the Earth’s history, practical commercial operations, such as mining and oil and gas exploration and extraction, would be much less effective,” he adds. An example is the drilling for shale gas that is being conducted at many sites around the world. This prospecting is often carried out on a wild-guess basis—as a result of insuffi-cient knowledge of deep geological structures and insufficient understanding of geological processes that have continued in a given area for hundreds of millions of years. And this is the kind of knowledge that paleomagnetic research provides, along with other geophysical methods.

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Covering more than 1,700 schools throughout the country, Eduscience is the country’s largest education project designed

to promote science. While the Institute of Geophysics is the main organizer, the project also involves the Edukacja Pro Futuro com-pany, which runs private schools and has coordinated a variety of education projects. Other partners include software company American Systems, which designs customized school manage-ment applications and interactive teaching aids, and Accelerated Learning Systems Ltd., a British company that designs systems to support active learning.

Eduscience was launched in 2011 and has been co-funded by the European Union under its European Social Fund (ESF). According to Agata Goździk, the project’s manager at the Institute of Geophysics, the main idea behind Eduscience is to combine education, science and technology.

Before it got under way in earnest, Eduscience was pilot-tested in 250 schools nationwide between September 2012 and June 2014. Instead of extracurricular activities and science clubs, Eduscience ac-tivities took place during regular mathematics, geography, chemis-try, physics and biology classes from the early grades of elementary school to the final years of high school and technical college. The test phase ran for two years and then Eduscience was launched in full.

“We could see a pressing need to promote mathematical and life sciences,” said Goździk. “That took a departure from textbook-based curricula. We needed to show children and adolescents things they would find fascinating, something that would make them keen to learn. Science still has enough secrets left to keep many generations busy discovering and exploring them.”

One of the project’s key objectives is to get students actively in-volved in the learning process. To this end, teaching methods have been adapted specifically to take into account the students’ personal capabilities and preferences. Innovative in terms of the Polish education system, this methodology is a tool intended for use by both teachers and students, so that students can, for example, fill out self-assessment questionnaires. Other professional surveys based on intelligence type tests, neuropsychology and neurology have been used to determine learning styles that best suit different students, identifying those who are visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners, for example.

Researchers from the Institute of Geophysics have organized a range of science fairs to bring their Eduscience presentations to the most remote corners of Poland. Such one-day events often attract up to 3,000 students. The young participants have been able to take part in a variety of fun experiments, using liquid nitrogen and dry ice, for example. Science has also been promoted at special science pic-nics in schools. “We wanted this to be something completely different from an ordinary day at school,” said Goździk.

The project has also introduced students to Polish geophysical ob-servatories. Students can come to an observatory for a day and are free to walk around and explore the facility, watch researchers at work and ask them about anything they find interesting. The researchers have been particularly surprised to find that elementary school stu-dents, including those in the youngest grades, are often the most ac-tive and curious group of visitors.

One of the strongest benefits of Eduscience is that it has provided young people with an opportunity to interact with scientists working at the Hornsund Polish Polar Station. Eduscience students can watch live satellite feeds from Hornsund, teleconference with Hornsund researchers, and ask them questions. Six students who won science contests have been even invited to join an expedition to Spitsbergen.

The Eduscience website and a special website on life sciences are an integral part of the Eduscience project. Visitors to the websites can find a wealth of information on Eduscience projects and activities, get in touch with researchers, watch science classes, and listen to lectures on a range of topics.

After the Eduscience project comes to an end, its online database will still be available on the Eduscience website, and Institute of Geo-physics observatories will remain open to visitors. The Eduscience team is also looking forward to the launch of funds available under the EU’s Knowledge-Education-Development operational program.

“All we can do now is keep our fingers crossed for new programs to which we could submit our projects and keep on working full swing,” Goździk said.

SCIENCE CAN BE FUNThe Eduscience nationwide educational project run by the Polish Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Geophysics in Warsaw is an innovative undertaking targeted at elementary and high school students that demonstrates that science can be fun and fascinating.

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