#ARCTIC. #SIBERIA. THIS IS TAIMYR. There are probably more scientific works than books of any other genre. After all, every summer expeditions flew to the vast territories of Taimyr – geological, hydrological, zoological.
After the field season, this entire army of scientists sat down to write reports, some of which grew into monographs and dissertations. But there were happy cases when, after an expedition, a work of art came out from the pen of a scientist – an expedition essay, accessible to the average reader.
The book by polar geologist Sergey Voskresensky In the Putorana Mountains, published in 1955, is among such samples. The author talks in it about the expedition of geologists to the Putorana plateau. The work took place on an area that stretches from north to south for 450 kilometers.
“Almost all the large lakes of Putorana are glacial in origin. All of them have an elongated shape, with the length being many times greater than the width. The largest lakes lying among the southern spurs of Putorana are Beldunchana and Anama. The length of the first is over 70 kilometers, and the second is about 60. The largest lakes in the western part of Putorana are called Chaya-Ayan and Ayaktal.
Lake Lama is 80 kilometers long, lake Keta is the same, and lake Hantaiskoye stretches for almost 120 kilometers. Pressed close by the approaching mountain slopes, all these lakes are extraordinarily beautiful. But only after climbing to the top, you can feel their true beauty. Depending on the lighting, these narrow and faintly shimmering stripes of water change their color from azure to dull green. On cloudy days the water often takes on the color of blued steel.
How were such lakes formed? Glaciers moving along river valleys sometimes met an obstacle on their way in the form of especially strong rocks, blocking the valley as a barrier. Overcoming such a barrier, the glacier often deepened that part of the valley that was in front of the barrier, or, as it is commonly called, the crossbar. When the glacier melted, the deepened section of the valley was occupied by water – a lake appeared there. Until now, in many of these lakes you can see well-preserved crossbars, which are rocky barriers, often smoothed by ice moving through them”.
In the History Spot’s previous publication, we told how the first years of Talnah’s life were described in books of the 1960s: journalists from all over the country went for a walk through the streets of the geologists’ village.
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Text: Svetlana Ferapontova, Photo: Nornickel Polar Branch archive
