Patomskiy crater
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Patom crater (Patomskiy crater), (Russian: Патомский кратер) is a crater at 59.28449°N 116.58954°ECoordinates: 59.28449°N 116.58954°E made of shattered calcareous blocks on a slope of Patomskogo, a mountain in the uplands of the Irkutsk region of southeastern Siberia.[1][2] It was discovered in 1949 by a geologist named Vadim Kolpakovym. The height is about 40 m, while the crest's diameter is 76 m. The cone's crown is formed like a ring shaft. In the center of the crater is a mound with a height of about 12 m. The volume of the crater is estimated as 230-250 thousand m?, with a weight of about one million tons. Another name is Kolpakova Cone (Russian: Конус Колпакова, "the jack of a fiery eagle").
Scientists from various research institutes in the country come to this conclusion at a recent St. Petersburg Mining University Scientific Conference "Patom crater-2010. The conference brought together professionals involved in the expedition of 2010 on the crater, and expedition members 2006 and 2008 – geologists, geochemists, geophysicists and astronomers from Irkutsk, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg and Moscow. RAS were scientists from the Institute of Geochemistry and the Institute of Solar-Terrestrial Physics. Patom crater discovered in 1949 by a geologist, Vadim Kolpakov. The crater is located in the north of the Irkutsk region, 360 km from the district center Bodaibo. It is a large mound of limestone with a diameter of about 160 meters and a height of 40 meters, and on top of it is circular shaft with a diameter of 80 meters. "Since the expedition in 2006 at the Institute of Geochemistry (IGC), SB RAS came to the conclusion that endogenous (volcanogenic) Patomskiy origin of craters on the basis of its geological mapping, establishment of zonal structure and the duration of the formation of the crater," – said the conference visited the department head of IG SB RAS , Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Viktor Antipin. According to him, these findings further found full confirmation in the dendrochronological analysis (method of dating archaeological finds and other objects, based on a study of annual rings of wood), with the staff of the Siberian Institute of Plant Physiology and Biochemistry SB RAS. Scientists said the past five years, IG SB RAS establishes its model with new materials – geological, geochemical, dendrochronological, isotope – to Irkutsk astronomers, geophysicists from the Irkutsk Technical University, geochemists from the Institute of Geosphere Dynamics, RAS (Moscow), who believed that Patom crater may still have a meteoric origin. "An important fact is that no serious argument or evidence of meteorite crater nature referred to specialists had been given. There was not any new evidence to support the meteorite hypothesis, and at a conference in St. Petersburg "- said Antipin. He noted that at the conference for the first time all the experts refused to meteoric hypothesis. "She now has only historical interest" – he added. According to studies of Siberian scientists, the crater formed during the 300-350 years since the end of the beginning of XV-XVI centuries. The zoning of the crater caused by geological processes and intensive introduction of deep gas flows of matter, which led to the transformation of silicate rocks within the crater. "An important confirmation of these ideas were the result of s geophysics from St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg State University of Mining) and Yekaterinburg (Institute of Geophysics, UB RAS). Performing gravimetric and geoelectrical investigations in a professional manner, they also came to the firm conviction that Patom crater has a depth of an endogenous nature ", – said Antipin. According to geophysicists, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, the gravitational fields known on Earth astroblems (ancient meteorite craters) have a very different shape, and Patom crater is not one of them, he added. Until recently, some scientists believed that the crater – a large ultra-dense footprint fall of the meteorite, which had gone underground, others – that the crater is deep gas breakthrough, others – that is a fragment of the Tunguska meteorite. By the crater was sent several scientific expeditions, but the nature of its origin remained a mystery.