Scientific Drilling (Mar 2009)

Complex Drilling Logistics for Lake El’gygytgyn, NE Russia

  • Martin Melles,,
  • Julie Brigham-Grette

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2204/iodp.sd.7.05.2009
Journal volume & issue
no. 7
pp. 38 – 39

Abstract

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Lake El’gygytgyn was formed by astrophysical chance when a meteorite struck the Earth 100 km north of the Arctic Circle in Chukotka 3.6 Myrs ago (Layer, 2000) on the drainage divide between the Arctic Ocean and the Bering Sea. The crater measures ~18 km in diameter and lies nearly in the center of what was to become Beringia, the largestcontiguous landscape in the Arctic to have escaped continental scale glaciation. Within the crater rim today, Lake El’gygytgyn is 12 km in diameter and 170 m deep, enclosing 350–400 m of sediment deposited since the time of impact (Gebhardt et al., 2006). This setting makes the lake ideal for paleoclimate and impact research.

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