Photo: Ice research station requests evacuation

Scientists on Russia’s scientific research station, North Pole-40, who arrived there last October, planned to stay at the station until September. But now they want to be evacuated because the ice floe underneath the station is falling apart — only the third time that a Russian ice research stations has asked for an early evacuation. “A collapse of the station’s ice floe poses a threat to its continued work, the lives of the crew, the environment close to the Canadian Economic Zone and to equipment and supplies,” said Russia’s minister of natural resources and environment, Sergey Donskoy, who promised May 23 to deliver an evacuation plan within three days. (PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MINISTRY OF NATURAL RESOURCES)