This amazing geological formation is called the Patomsky crater. Its scientific name is "Kolpakov's Cone". The crater is located in the Irkutsk region, 300 km from Bodaibo. The crater has completely unique shapes, reminiscent of meteorite formations on Mars or the Moon.
Chronology of research
The Russians began to develop the east of the country in the middle of the 19th century, mainly geologists and industrialists. Of course, they were primarily interested in forest reserves, furs and minerals. Therefore, for a long time, they did not pay attention to the strange names that the Yakuts gave to rivers and mountains. And this went on for quite a long time, until at the end of the 40s of the twentieth century, geological expeditions began to closely study the previously reserved places of Siberia.
The Irkutsk region was explored by the expedition of Vadim Kolpakov. In 1949, his group worked on maps of the area - and discovered a completely amazing formation, later called the Kolpakov Cone or Patomsky crater, as it was discovered in the Vitim-Patomsky highlands.
It was an elliptical mountain ledge 220 m long, which was crowned with a cone with an annular shaft, the height of which ranges from 4-40 m, the diameter is 86 m, and the height of the central part is up to 12 m. The total mass of the "cone" is estimated at about a million tons. Object material - gray limestone.
Promotional video:
Versions of origin
About how this crater was formed, a huge number of hypotheses have been put forward - up to the obviously exotic. Let's consider some of them.
Underground nuclear reaction
The unique shape of the cone could have been caused by a spontaneous reaction in the uranium deposit directly under the crater (these are the deposits that Kolpakov's group was looking for). True, uranium ore was not found in the Vitimo-Patom Upland. In addition, it is highly unlikely that in the depths of the earth conditions similar to laboratory conditions could be created - a certain ratio of various uranium isotopes, a free influx of carbon, etc. Today only one natural reactor is known - in Gabon (Central Africa). But it is more than 2 million years old, but the critical mass for a spontaneous explosion has not yet been accumulated.
Meteor falling
Kolpakov himself adheres to this particular version of the crater formation. He claims that craters of a similar shape can be seen on Mars, for example. Other researchers associate its formation with the impact of the Tunguska meteorite (recall that the meteorite itself was never found). But the Cone little resembles the cranks from the impact of meteorites on Earth, and the shape with an annular shaft is more often still formed when a superdense celestial body hits loose rock on the surface of a celestial body without an atmosphere, for example, on the Moon.
The birth of a volcano
The shape of the cone resembles characteristic volcanic formations: a truncated cone with steep walls. But Patomsky crater is located on a very stable territory - it is not an area of active volcanism, and there are no volcanic rocks on the formation itself.
Extraterrestrial intervention
Quite a popular version, which, moreover, is rather difficult to confirm or deny. It is known that a fairly dense forest has pounded on the crater. Thus, the age of the crater is at least 500 years. True, the plants immediately posed a new riddle: larch trees grew rapidly around the crater. And this is reminiscent of what was observed in Chernobyl after the disaster at the nuclear power plant. This immediately gave rise to a new version of the version of extraterrestrial intervention - allegedly directly under the crater rests a UFO on nuclear fuel. So far, however, no objects containing metals have been found under the crater.
Gas volcano
This is one of the most plausible explanations today. The mechanism is simple: the crater was the result of alternating freezing and melting of rocks. So, as it happens on Io, Yuriter's satellite - such cryovolcanoes are observed there. In other words, during the entire Little Ice Age, underground waters froze under the crater. The peak of this ice age was just about 500 years ago (mid-17th century). Seasonal ice thawing and high pressure on the rocks caused a very intense and destructive hydraulic shock with the release of thawed water. The rocks were scattered, a crater formed. The water accumulated an incredible amount of energy and burst out like a fountain: the rocks were crushed, the energy was transferred to the surrounding trees, which accelerated the growth of, for example, larch trees.
This hypothesis explains many, but not all, the mysteries of the Patomsky crater. But there is also the so-called curse of the crater, which is mysterious in itself and has not yet received an explanation.
The Curse of the Nest of the Fire Eagle
Even now, locals do not like to approach the "Nest of the Fiery Eagle," as the Yakuts call Kolpakov's Cone. Rumors of the curse began to spread in 2005. Then Evgeny Vorobyov, the leader of the expedition, died suddenly. The cause of death was said to be a heart attack. The group did not reach the Cone only 6 km. It is known that large animals are not found near the crater - or rather, they have never been seen.
In 2011, information appeared that the leadership of the Irkutsk region intends to create a natural park in these places. However, there is still no information about the development of this project.
Author: Elena Lesnaya