Scientists from Magadan are now racking their brains over another mystery of nature - tons of volcanic ash have been found in Kolyma. How it appeared in a region where there are no volcanoes, no one has yet given an exact answer to this question
However, local residents do not care. They have already found a use for the mysterious ash: they fertilize flowers and even wash dishes. Where does volcanic ash come from in Kolyma? Tons of ash in several places in the Magadan region have interested scientists. There are no volcanoes in the region, therefore, the ash was brought to the Kolyma from afar. Scientists think so.
The problem is now being dealt with at the Russian Academy of Sciences. And locals use the ashes for personal needs. The place of work of Doctor of Geographical Sciences, Professor Vladimir Smirnov is a quarry in the Khasynsky District of the Magadan Region. His job is called "stripping".
The scientist clears away the layers by which one can judge the age of this mountain of volcanic ash. “The rings are like those of a tree,” explains the professor. “The more stripes, the more years. We are now opening the layered strata. See, it is made up of layers of pure ash. Volcanic. Light, white layers. And the dark layers are clay ash. There are two and a half tons of volcanic ash here. There are no volcanoes in the Magadan region. Therefore, the scientists concluded, the ash is not local. There is an old theory that this ash was brought to the Magadan region from tropical forests. Now scientists are almost sure that the wind brought this ash from Kamchatka. After a very powerful volcanic eruption about 40 thousand years ago.
And it happened in the winter. Because it is at this time of the year that cyclones come from Kamchatka to Kolyma. True, it is very difficult to imagine such a mountain of ash brought by the wind. “You can imagine,” explains Vladimir Smirnov, professor of the Far East Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, “there was an ice bowl. It was poured into it there, poured here. Its sides were icy. And then she melted. The ice is gone. The water is gone. But this hill has remained."
Scientists from the Russian Academy of Sciences analyzed the composition of the ash. And they came to the conclusion: it is the same as that of the ash from the Ichinsky volcano in Kamchatka. This volcano has not erupted for a long time. And forty thousand years ago it was the most powerful in the Far East. In Kolyma, it was even colder at that time than it is now. “The Magadan region was covered by a fairly large glaciation. There were large large glaciers. Naturally, there was a very cold snap, - Olga Glushkova, a leading employee of the SVKNII FEB RAS, seems to be telling a weather forecast for 40 thousand years ago.
While scientists are putting forward hypotheses and studying the composition of the Kolyma ash, residents of the surrounding villages use it in their own way. They wash the dishes and even fertilize the flowers. Thanks to him, Kolyma residents are sure, they grow better. “I don’t use any fertilizers at all. I sprinkle ashes sometimes. Well, there once a month. Well, that's the trick in principle. The flowers grow beautifully,”says amateur gardener Lilia Tikhomirova. Local entrepreneurs also claim these ash deposits. It can be used to make glass, expanded clay, mineral wool.
Scientists say that the quarry should remain intact. For science. There are too many secrets hidden in its depths that remain to be studied for many years.