An expedition to Patomsky crater in the northern part of the Irkutsk Region was completed. During the week scientist of St.Petersburg State Mining Institute im.G.V Plekhanov, Institute of Geophysics Ural Branch of RAS and the Institute of Geochemistry SB RAS conducted experiments and studies aimed at explaining the genesis of one of the most enigmatic geological objects on the territory of Russia.
Participants of  in the expedition were also Chairman of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation S.M. Mironov (a geophysicist by education), and Head of METROPOL Group М.V. Slipenchuk (a geographer by education).
Past exhibition is already the fourth in the past ten years, and most representative in terms of the experts involved. Organizational and financial support was provided by METROPOL Group and the Fund for Protection of Lake Baikal.

For reference

Patomsky crater in the Bodaibo area of Irkutsk Region is a large conical hill with a cut-off top located in remote taiga and discovered in 1949 by geologist V. Kolpakov. So far scientists have not come to a consensus regarding the origin of this geographic feature. Meteoric and volcanic hypotheses were proposed in the past, but recently experts have been inclined to believe that the crater was a product of endogenous processes in the Earth’s crust. However, scientists are not yet ready to explain what made over half a million cubic meters of carbonaceous rock erupt from beneath the earth to form a regular-shaped concentrated structure.