Having an official task to draw up a geological map of the region, a young geologist ended up running into something so unique, outstanding and mysterious that it would still puzzle scientists more than six decades later - the Patomskiy crater. Read more
Patom crater (Patomskiy crater), is a crater at 59.28449°N 116.58954°E made of shattered calcareous blocks on a slope of Patomskiy upland. The crater site is located in the north of the Irkutsk region of southeastern Siberia, 360 km from the district center Bodaibo. It was discovered in 1949 by a geologist named Vadim Kolpakov. It is a large mound of limestone with a diameter of about 160 meters and a height of 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 cubic meters, with a weight of about one million tons. Another name is Kolpakova Cone (Russian:"the jack of a fiery eagle"). Read more