Participants of a scientific expedition to the Patomsky crater in the Irkutsk region put forward a cryovolcanic hypothesis of this mysterious phenomenon, said Dmitry Gladkochub, Deputy Chairman of the Irkutsk Scientific Center of the SB RAS, at a press conference at the Irkutsk press center of the Interfax-Siberia agency
Patomsky crater is a cone of crushed limestone boulders on the slope of the Patomsky Upland in the Irkutsk region. Discovered in 1949 by geologist Vadim Kolpakov. The height is about 40 m, the diameter along the ridge is 76 m. The cone is crowned with a flat top, which is an annular shaft. In the center of the funnel there is a hill up to 12 m high. The total volume of the cone is estimated at 230-250 thousand m, weight - about a million tons. Locals call it the Fire Eagle's Nest. The Priangarye authorities are deciding on the formation of a special natural protected zone on the site of the crater.
“The fifth expedition to the Patomsky crater took place last week. On the basis of the first studies, the space hypothesis of the origin of the crater was recognized. Then a hypothesis was put forward about the volcanic nature due to the influx of mantle material from the deep levels of the earth's crust. By the beginning of our expedition, the objective facts obtained in the course of research by scientists from the Institute of Geochemistry cast doubt on this hypothesis, too,”said D. Gladkochub.
According to him, the task of the expedition was to verify the data that had already been received. “Synthesizing scientific developments, we thought about a more objective point of view. While visiting the crater, scientists observed that neither space nor volcanic hypotheses were confirmed. There are no signs of deep matter in the crater,”said the scientist.
He stressed that, judging by the observations, glacial processes are actively developing at the site of the crater.
“This is the area of the cryolite zone, where fossil rock ice is present. It could happen that all the underground waters in a concentrated form in this massif were frozen over for many years. The processes caused by seasonal thawing and freezing of ice could provoke a powerful water hammer, which led to the destruction of rocks and produced such a structure as our crater. The trigger to this process could be the most ordinary landslide, when the density of this massif was disturbed. All the energy accumulated by the water was transferred upward. So, we have nothing else but a cryovolcano that has arisen under permafrost conditions,”explained D. Gladkochub.
He noted that the location of the cryovolcano on the slope remains a mystery. “But this can also be explained geologically, since the sandstone underlying our crater is a good reservoir of water. The irregularities of the limestone bedding surfaces could well have left chambers, which later turned into underground lakes. The age of the volcano coincides with the Little Ice Age,”the scientist said.
Research on the crater will continue next year, he said.
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Director of the Astronomical Observatory of Irkutsk State University Sergei Yazev noted that the latest data from scientists "look convincing."
“Scientists have long been puzzling over how this absolutely ridiculous stratum was formed, which sticks out on the slope. The hypothesis of the cosmic origin of the Patomsky crater (the fall of a large meteorite) in the past. We will see how the hypothesis related to ice will be confirmed,”the scientist said.
The participants of the press conference said that the expedition to the Patomsky crater was organized by the Foundation for the Promotion of the Preservation of Lake Baikal with the support of the Metropol Group of Companies. Also during the expedition, material was collected for a film from the Mysterious Russia series.