A-Team, "Perhaps 1600 km to Canadian mainland" - yes "I recollect their average velocity was about 7 km/hr which says a lot about the unexpectedly weak condition of the ice" - they reached SP-40 in 7,5 days, much earlier than was planned, with avg speed about 8 knots, thats more like 15 km/hr. Also, I have found the high-resolution scheme of the SP-40 situation on June, 03.

Semiletov went on a new expedition 3 days ago (from Murmansk, Northern Sea Route). "According to the head of the expedition, Igor Semiletov, the focus will again be methane emissions in the Arctic seas, particularly in the Laptev Sea". So new results can be expected soon. And one more news: An international expedition of Russian, Japanese and South Korean scientists on research vessel Academician Lavrentiev went from Vladivostok on August 7 to explore new deposits of gas hydrates. The expedition discovered gas hydrate deposits on the slope of the Kuril Basin in the southern part of the Okhotsk Sea. On the same slope they discovered a powerful stream of bubbles of methane. It rises to the surface from a depth of 2.2 thousand meters, the first known stream rising from such a depth. Large concentrations of gas hydrates were also discovered in the Sea of Japan on the west slope of Sakhalin in the Tatar Strait, with at least 43 plumes of methane bubbles rising from the sea-bed. (sry for my poor English :)