Elgygytgyn Lake

Lake El'gygytgyn (Chukchi: Эльгыгытгын) is an impact crater lake located in the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug in northeast Siberia, about 150 km southeast of Chaunskaya Bay. It is drained to the southeast by the Enmybaam branch of the Belaya River. It is approximately 12 km in diameter and has a maximum depth of 174 m +/- 2m. The lake is centered within an impact crater with a rim diameter of 18 km that formed 3.6 million years ago during the Pliocene).

The lake is of particular interest to scientists because it has never been covered by glaciers. This has allowed the uninterrupted build-up of 400 m of sediment at the bottom of the lake, recording information on prehistoric climate change.

Scientific Drilling

In Late 2008 and Early 2009, an international team from Germany, Russia and the USA conducted a drilling program targeting three holes in Elgygytgyn Lake. The resulting cores are designated ICPD Site 5011-1 and 5011-3. This co-sponsored by the International Continental Scientific Drilling Program (ICDP), with funding also provided by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) and GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam (GFZ), the Russian Academy of Sciences Far East Branch (RAS FEB), the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR), and the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science and Research (BMWF).