The first of two international expeditions to Labrador planned for this year took place from 9 to 22 August. The research was carried out as part of the 'Poles Together' project. The team was led by Prof. Monika A. Kusiak from the Institute of Geophysics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IGF PAN). In addition to her, the away team consisted of Prof. Simon A. Wilde from Curtin University in Perth (Australia), Dr Lars E. Augland from the University of Oslo (Norway) and Dr Daniel J. Dunkley from IGF PAN. The scientists lived in the tents of the science camp in the Torngat Mountains. Thanks to the support of Parks Canada and the Nunatsiavut Government, protection from bears was ensured - a 'bear guard' accompanied the expedition participants during their work.

During the expedition, the researchers used a helicopter, which allowed them to reach previously unexplored sites such as Cape Territok, Mount Tetragona and Iron Strand. Other selected locations on the islands have been reached by Zodiac.

In the vicinity of Saglek Bay, some of the oldest rocks on Earth were documented in the 1980s. Together with the rocks of West Greenland, they form fragments of our planet's oldest continental crust. In 2017, a group of Japanese researchers published papers talking about the origins of life fixed in the rocks of Labrador. Previous scientific research in the region by a team led by Prof Kusiak has undermined the supposed discovery of the Japanese. The work documents gneisses 3750 million years old that underwent metamorphic transformation 2700 million years ago. This time, 80 rock and beach sand samples have been collected, amounting to almost 200 kg. These samples will be sent to the GeoBeLa laboratory and processed there.

In a few days, another expedition to Labrador, led by Prof. Monika A. Kusiak. The team consists of Prof. Martin Whitehouse from the Museum of Natural History in Stockholm (Sweden) and Dr Rikke Vestergaard from the University of Oslo (Norway), as well as staff and doctoral students from IGF PAN: Prof. Rafał Junosza-Szaniawski, Dr Daniel Dunkley, Tanmay Keluskar, M.Sc. and Marcin Mieszczak, M.Sc.