In the submitted work on the basis of the field research executed in May, 2003 in east part of the Barents Sea, the ensemble of characteristics of hummocks of two-year-old ice, and also the main features distinguishing them from annual hummocks of the Barents Sea and other areas of Arctic regions, is examined. Second-year-old ice floes, on which the ice testing works were carried out, have been found out in immediate proximity of Shtokman Gas-Condensate deposit. Their occurrence in this area is considered an abnormal phenomenon, caused by receipt to Barents Sea residual and two-year-old ice from a northeast part of Kara Sea within winter of 2002–2003.
In May 2003, in the course of conducting the expedition ice studies onboard the R/V "Mikhail Somov" in the eastern Barents Sea (to be more exact in the area of the Shtokman gas-condensate field (SGCF)) between 74 and 76 °N, inclusions of second-year ice were detected and investigated. Detection of second-year ice in the SGCF area was not unexpected: specialists on satellite monitoring warned about its occurrence at these latitudes before the start of the expedition. Secondyear ice is exported to the Barents Sea from the northern area of the Arctic Basin and from the northeastern (from Arctic basin and northeastern Kara Sea - through Makarov Strait). It is considered typical of the northern areas of the Barents Sea (The "USSR Seas", 1990), hence its appearance in the SGCF region was an anomalous phenomenon. The source of second-year ice inclusions was residual and second-year ice of the northeastern Kara Sea exported through Makarov Strait during the entire winter of 2002–2003. The ice studies that were carried out in spring of 2003 were comprehensive in character and included studies of morphometry, internal structure and physical-mechanical properties of level ice and ice ridges.
