Siberian scientists have proved that 6,500 years ago there was a breakthrough of mountain lakes in the Pamirs and the south of Western Siberia was subjected to powerful flooding
Exploring the bottom sediments of lakes in the Novosibirsk region, the researchers found in them shells of marine organisms - foraminifera. These organisms can only live in saltwater seawater. The age of these shells is approximately 6.5 thousand years. It is known that foraminifera live now and lived in ancient times in the Aral and Caspian seas. How could they get into the freshwater lakes of Siberia?
Sergei Guskov, an employee of the Institute of Petroleum Geology and Geophysics (INGG) SB RAS, expressed the opinion of scientists in an interview with RIA Novosti. Scientists believe that foraminifera entered the West Siberian Plain with the waters of the Aral Sea, which were captured by a powerful flood stream from the Pamir Mountains. This stream went along the Amu Darya river and, having washed away the Aral-Irtysh watershed with a height of more than 100 meters, burst out into the territory of Western Siberia. There are several confirmations of this.
For example, the following: evidence that the Aral Sea was once in the path of the strongest water flow from the Pamir mountains is the discovered significant erosion of one of the layers of its bottom sediments and the age of this layer coincides with the age of foraminifera found in Siberia. There are other confirmations of this scientific theory.
Scientists do not deny the possibility of a breakthrough in the mountain lakes of the Pamirs in the future.