Lake Elgygytgyn
Lake Elgygytgyn, also transcripted El'gygytgyn, is a crater lake in Anadyrsky District, Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in northeast Siberia, about southeast of Chaunskaya Bay.
The word "Elgygytgyn" means "white lake" in the Chukchi language.
The lake is of particular interest to scientists because it has never been covered by glaciers. This has allowed the uninterrupted build-up of of sediment at the bottom of the lake, recording information on prehistoric climate change.
Geography
Lake Elgygytgyn is an impact crater lake located in the Anadyr Plateau, part of the Anadyr Highlands. It is drained to the southeast by the Enmyvaam, a tributary of the Belaya. It is approximately in diameter and has a maximum depth of. The lake is centered within an impact crater with a rim diameter of that formed 3.6 million years ago during the Pliocene. Before it was reliably dated, preliminary papers in the late 1970s suggested either Elgygytgyn or Zhamanshin as the source of the young Australasian strewnfield.Scientific drilling
In late 2008 and early 2009, an international team conducted a drilling program targeting three holes in Elgygytgyn Lake. The resulting cores are designated ICPD Site 5011-1 and 5011-3.This resulted in two papers, both of which demonstrated the significant impact of polar amplification. During the Pleistocene, Lake El'gygytgyn was found to have experienced numerous "super interglacials," with temperatures approximately 4-5°C higher and precipitation approximately 300mm higher than experienced during the Holocene epoch. In the mid-Pliocene Warm Period, when atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations were likely similar to today, summer temperatures at Lake El'gygytgyn were approximately 8°C higher. Some results of the Lake El'gygytgyn Drilling Project were presented by over 50 scientists in a special issue of Climate of the Past and a special issue of Meteoritics and Planetary Science.