Patomsky crater (Eastern Siberia)
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Patomsky crater (Eastern Siberia)

by Dmitry Demezhko, Institute of Geophysics UB RAS, Yekaterinburg, Russia

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Dmitry Demezhko 12 years, 8 months ago

Patomsky crater in Irkutsk Region of Eastern Siberia is a cone with a crater on its top and a little hill in the center of the crater. Maximal height is 39 m, horizontal dimensions 160x130m. It was discovered in 1949 by Russian geologist V. Kolpakov and for a long time the crater was related to impact structure. Later, V.Antipin supposed that it is a new nascent volcano. Nevertheless, neither meteoritic nor volcanic matter was found there. The crater consists of proterozoic limestone debris. So far there is no consensus among scientists regarding the origin of the Patomsky crater.