Nature

Beautiful Siberia – Lena Pillars and the Olenyok River

08/28/201209/05/2019 by Viola

Beautiful Siberia – Lena Pillars and the Olenyok River

Known for its abundant fish, the Olenyok River is 2,292 kilometers long, and it is navigable. The river’s source is on the northern Central Siberian Plateau in Krasnoyarsk Krai. From there it flows north east before emptying into the Olenyok Gulf of the Laptev Sea at Ust-Olenyok west of the Lena River delta. According to historians, in 1633 Ivan Rebrov reached The Olenyok River from the Lena delta and built a fort. Pioneering Russian Arctic explorer Vasili Pronchishchev and his wife Tatiana Feodorovna set out on a voyage together and she became the first woman – polar explorer in the world. In accordance with the historical version, the Pronchishchevs died of scurvy and were buried at the mouth of the Olenek River.

Lena Pillars – unique natural rock formation along the banks of the Lena River. The pillars are 150–300 meters high. The Lena Pillars National Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2012. The site lies less than a day’s boat ride upriver (south) from the city of Yakutsk, the capital of the autonomous Sakha Republic.

These types of rocks are commonly formed in marine environments and the horizontal layering and vertical variation indicates marine transgression/regression; with the slate representing the deep marine, slightly metamorphosed shales.