Putorana Plateau in northern Central Siberia - Earth.com

Putorana Plateau in northern Central Siberia

11-12-2016

Sentinel-2A show us snowy Siberia. This video features the Putorana Plateau in northern Central Siberia.

This shows us part of the Putoransky State Nature Reserve, which is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Situated about 100 km north of the Arctic Circle, it serves as a major reindeer migration route – a rare natural phenomenon – and is one of the very few centers of plant species richness in the Arctic.

Almost untouched by humans, this isolated mountain area includes pristine forests and cold-water lake and river systems. The lakes have elongated, fjord-like shapes, such as Lake Ayan in the upper-central part of the image.

Zooming in on the ice-covered lake we can see small patches of water peeking through.

Another feature of this area are the flat-topped mountains, formed by a geological process called ‘plume volcanism’: where a large body of magma seeps through Earth’s surface and creates a blanket of basalt kilometers thick. Over time, cracks in the rock filled with water and became the rivers and lakes we see today.

Credit: European Space Agency

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