Another expedition organized by the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS) and Komsomolskaya Pravda has returned from the most mysterious place on Earth
Waves fade
Patomsky crater, this huge blue-gray cone, towering among the remote Siberian taiga, haunts scientists. How did it come about? Riddle. For the fourth year now, scientists have been exploring the mysterious formation in search of clues. And they put forward new versions. One of the latter, for example, suggests that there may be a diamond deposit under the crater.
A week ago, our joint expedition with the RAS started. The researchers armed themselves with special electromagnetic devices for sounding the bowels. It was assumed that thanks to them it would be possible to look about 5-6 kilometers into the depths. But this experience failed. For some reason, the waves did not pass even a kilometer.
Scientists shared their preliminary conclusions in the press center of the Irkutsk "Komsomolskaya Pravda".
Like a volcano
New analyzes show the crater is unlikely to have been the result of a meteorite impact.
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“Even past expeditions have shown that there was no invasion from space,” says Viktor ANTIPIN, a professor from the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. - Patomsky crater looks like a bulk cone. And meteorites usually leave flat depressions. The crater appears to be a dormant young volcano that can wake up at any time.
- Yes, initially there was a beautiful hypothesis that the Patomsky crater is a trail from the fall of a fragment of the Tunguska meteorite, says Viktor VORONIN, an employee of SIFIBER SB RAS. “But now we know almost the exact age of the trees growing nearby. The oldest of them is 530 years old. It is located one and a half meters from the crater. This is much more than the Tunguska meteorite, which is 100 years old. That is, the "Nest of the Fire Eagle", as the crater is popularly called, first formed, only then the sprout of this tree appeared.
And like a meteorite
- One of the expeditions found magnetite balls near the Patomsky crater, usually accompanying meteorites, - emphasizes Boris GOLUBOV, an employee of the RAS. - And until their other nature becomes clear, I would postpone refuting the meteorite hypothesis.
Finally, everyone is confused by a certain body that was found by an electromagnetic device at the bottom of the crater.
“What's inside is still unknown - maybe salt water, maybe metal, but this substance conducts an electric current,” says Alexander POSPEEV, head of the Irkutsk electrical prospecting company. - The body lies at a depth of about a hundred meters. It will be possible to judge more precisely when we carry out further analysis.
Who shot through the trees?
Scientists have determined that the radiation background in the Patomsky crater area changed three times. The most powerful splash was "imprinted" in the annual tree rings. And it fell on 1841 - 1842. The radiation level at that time was no lower than after the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Now it is normal.
- What became the source of radiation is not yet clear. But the trees have clearly experienced some powerful damaging effect, says Viktor Voronin. - On some we even found huge through holes. As if someone was metal core.
Read more about the discoveries made by scientists in the next issues of "KP" in the reports of our special correspondent Andrey MOISEENKO, who took part in the expedition.