The deep eastern Arctic basin between the Lomonosov Ridge and the Eurasian continental margin differs from other ocean basins in the very slow spreading of its floor and unusual depositional environment under perennial sea-ice cover. The recent expedition ARK IV/3 of RV Polar stern for the first time made geoscientific investigations from the northern margin of the Barents Sea north to the Nansen-Gakkel Ridge. Much deeper than most other mid-ocean ridges, this ridge is poorly-surveyed, but has a central valley which in places is deeper than 5.5 km, 1–1.5 km below the basin floors on either side. Heat flow in the central part of the valley is very rapid; both basement rocks and overlying sediments showed unexpectedly the influence of intense and long-term hydrothermal activity. The sediments on the northern and southern flanks of the ridge are slightly calcareous pelagic mud layers alternating with carbonate-free horizons, where up to 40% of the sedimentary section is soft mud clasts. Similar mud aggregates were observed on the surface of the multi-year sea ice, appearing to represent a special type of sediment transport by sea ice in the Transpolar Drift. In contrast to the western Arctic, Fram Strait and the Norwegian-Greenland Sea, gravel is rarely found in sediment cores. Recovered cores indicate that icebergs and sea ice carrying coarse sediment seldom rafted detritus to the study area during the last approximately 300,000 years.

This article reviews the role that ministerial directives played in shaping the constitutional development of the Yukon Territory 1970–85. These were years of dramatic change, with the form of government shifting from autocratic bureaucracy to responsible democracy. The instrument for this change was the ministerial directive, an order from the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs to the Commissioner, sanctioned by Section 4 of the Yukon Act. The fact that the head of government is the Commissioner, a senior federal public servant, was key to the process.

Priyadarshani, an oligotrophic lake in Schirmacher Oasis (Antarctica), was surveyed during the austral summers of 1984–85 and 1986–87 in limnological and benthic studies. Benthic microfauna included seven taxonomic groups, dominated numerically by protozoa, rotifera, nematoda, turbellaria, tardigrada, oligochaeta and mites. Faunal density was high in moss-associated sediments. A maximum water depth of 6.5 m was recorded at the centre of the lake. A thick layer (25–90 cm) of moss and algal communities covered the bottom sediments. The total volume of water was estimated to be 62 million m3 over the submerged area of 0·297 km2.

Exploitation of large gas deposits in Yamal peninsula, due to start in 1991, has been postponed until the late 1990s. Technical difficulties and rising costs are becoming apparent, while environmentalist and native-interest lobbies are becoming vociferous about the serious ecological and social impact of pipelines on wildlife, fishing and reindeer herding. An extensive public debate has developed, some of it opposed to the powerful gas ministries. Yet gas exports still play a key role in the Soviet economy, itself in the process of reform. The situation is thus in a state of uncertainty.

Knud Rasmussen (1879–1933), born in Greenland of Danish-Inuit stock, spent his childhood in Greenland. After schooling in Denmark he returned to Greenland for expeditions to the Inuit of the northeast, establishing by his late twenties a reputation as explorer and ethnographer. He undertook seven major expeditions to the Arctic, collecting ethnographic, archaeological, meteorological, geological, zoological and botanic data. His longest and best-known journey was the Fifth Thule Expedition, in which he travelled by dog sledge across Arctic America from Danish Island in the east to Nome, Alaska. His extensive record of the culture of Inuit groups met on his journeys remains one of the most valuable collections of Inuit folklore in existence.

A multi-box corer is described, recently designed and constructed as part of the Euromar Project, through cooperation between the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and Fa. MAK Krupp Maschinenbau GmbH Kiel. Deployed successfully during the RV Polarstern expedition ANT VI/3 early in 1988, the multiple corer provided nine samples over a sampling area of 2–3 m2, thus obtaining more reliable abundance values than a single corer, and providing insights into the spatial variability of macrobenthic organisms. Equipped with a UW-video, the corer facilitates controlled economic collection of sediment and macrobenthos in depths down to 5000 m.

The site of Fort Magnesia, the base hut of a three-man expedition to Payer Harbour, Pirn Island, in the Canadian Arctic, has recently been rediscovered by a party from the Geological Survey of Canada. Erected by Robert Stein's party in summer 1899, and used by them for two years, the hut was almost certainly moved to another site by Robert E. Peary for his over-wintering in 1901–02. Only fragments of the hut now remain. Five graves, probably of Peary's Eskimo helpers, are located nearby.