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Balagan-Tas

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Cinder cone volcano in Russia
Balagan-Tas
Балаган-Тас
Balagan-Tas is located in Far Eastern Federal DistrictBalagan-TasBalagan-TasSakha Republic, Russia
Highest point
Elevation993 m (3,258 ft)
Prominence300 m (980 ft)
Coordinates65°57′N 145°54′E / 65.95°N 145.9°E / 65.95; 145.9
Naming
Native name
  • Балаҕан Таас (Yakut)
  • Balaghan Taas (Yakut)
Geography
LocationSakha Republic, Russia
Parent rangeChersky Range
Geology
Rock age266,000 ± 30,000 years
Mountain typeCinder Cone
Last eruption1775

Balagan-Tas (Yakut: Балаҕан Таас, Russian: Балаган-Тас) is a cinder cone volcano in Russia. It was discovered by V.A. Zimin in 1939 and is one of the main features of the Moma Natural Park.

Description

This volcano is located in the Chersky Range, in the Moma River valley and is the only clearly Quaternary volcano in the area; the existence of another volcano active in the 1770s has not been confirmed. The supposed Indighirsky volcano may be actually Balagan-Tas. Its location has often been given incorrectly.

Balagan-Tas is a volcanic cone with a crater of which little remains. It covers a surface area of 1.8 square kilometres (0.69 sq mi). The crater is 200 metres (660 ft) wide and 40 metres (130 ft) deep, the cone is 300 metres (980 ft) high and has a base diameter of 1,200 metres (3,900 ft). It may be considered a composite volcano. The volcano has generated three lava flows which cover a surface area of 45 square kilometres (17 sq mi). They reach a thickness of 10 metres (33 ft).

The volcano has erupted alkali basalts typical for rift zone volcanoes. Its composition has been characterized as hawaiite. Titanium dioxide contents of 3.81% have been measured. The helium-3/helium-4 ratios approach these associated with mantle plumes.

Balagan-Tas lies on an anticline. It is associated with faulting. Further it is related to the Moma-Zoryansk rift and the Gakkel ridge, which extends to the Laptev sea. The De Long Islands and a potentially Quaternary dyke complex of the Viliga river may also be related. This tectonic activity is related to the interaction between the Eurasian Plate and the North American Plate.

Other volcanoes are found in the neighbourhood. Northwest of Balagan-Tas lies the Uraga Khaya volcano; it is located 66°06′N 145°24′E / 66.1°N 145.4°E / 66.1; 145.4 and is a lava dome formed by rhyolite. Its age is unclear, potassium-argon dating has yielded an age of 16.6 mya but its appearance indicates it may be considerably younger. A further volcano may exist northwest of this centre. A liparite dome named Majak is located at 66°27′N 147°09′E / 66.45°N 147.15°E / 66.45; 147.15, but it may be the same as Uraga Khaya and the coordinates wrong.

Potassium-argon dating of Balagan-Tas has yielded an age of 266,000 ± 30,000 years ago, comparable to Anyuj volcano, and may reflect a regional or global pulse of volcanic activity. Other sources consider the volcano late Holocene in age, or even as active during historical time. Hot springs are found southeast of Balagan-Tas. They reach temperatures of 30 °C (86 °F), which together with the other activity indicates a hot upper mantle. If reports of activity of the supposed Indighirsky volcano in the 1770s refer to Balagan-Tas, this volcano may have had historical activity, one of the few outside of Kamchatka in continental Asia.

References

  1. ^ Grachev, A. F. (31 October 2003). "The Arctic rift system and the boundary between the Eurasian and North American lithospheric plates: New insight to plate tectonic theory". Russian Journal of Earth Sciences. 5 (5): 307–345. doi:10.2205/2003ES000135. S2CID 129810650.
  2. "Moma Natural Park Official site". Archived from the original on 2019-09-29. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  3. ^ Silantyev, S.A.; Bogdanovskii, O.G.; Fedorov, P.I.; Karpenko, S.F.; Kostitsyn, Yu.A (June 2004). "Intraplate magmatism of the De Long Islands: A response to the propagation of the ultraslow-spreading Gakkel Ridge into the passive continental margin in the Laptev Sea" (PDF). Russian Journal of Earth Sciences. 6 (3): 172. doi:10.2205/2004ES000150. Retrieved 23 September 2016.
  4. Maria Shahgedanova (2002). The Physical Geography of Northern Eurasia. Oxford University Press. p. 300. ISBN 978-0-19-823384-8.
  5. ^ Whitford-Stark 1983, p. 199.
  6. ^ Fujita, Cambray & Velbel 1990, p. 110.
  7. ^ Whitford-Stark 1987, p. 24.
  8. Whitford-Stark 1987, p. 48.
  9. Whitford-Stark 1987, p. 29.
  10. Whitford-Stark 1983, p. 213.
  11. Matveyenko, V. T.; Shatalov, E. T. (February 1963). "Fractures, Magmatism and Mineralization in the Northeast of the U.s.s R. (Part 1 of 2)". International Geology Review. 5 (2): 153. Bibcode:1963IGRv....5..127M. doi:10.1080/00206816309473762.
  12. Richard E. Ernst; Kenneth L. Buchan (1 January 2001). Mantle Plumes: Their Identification Through Time. Geological Society of America. p. 213. ISBN 978-0-8137-2352-5.
  13. Whitford-Stark 1987, p. 39.
  14. Fujita, Cambray & Velbel 1990, p. 111.
  15. Pevzner, M. M.; Gertsev, D. O.; Romanenko, F. A.; Kushcheva, Yu. V. (6 July 2011). "The first data on isotopic age of Anyui volcano (Chukotka)". Doklady Earth Sciences. 438 (2): 737. Bibcode:2011DokES.438..736P. doi:10.1134/S1028334X11060109. S2CID 128991774.
  16. Pevzner, M. M.; Gertsev, D. O.; Fedorov, P. I.; Romanenko, F. A.; Kushcheva, Yu. V. (January 2017). "Anyui Volcano in Chukotka: Age, structure, pecularities of rocks' composition and eruptions". Lithology and Mineral Resources. 52 (1): 45. Bibcode:2017LitMR..52...20P. doi:10.1134/s0024490217010059. S2CID 132021660.
  17. Whitford-Stark 1987, p. 35.
  18. Fujita, Cambray & Velbel 1990, p. 112.
  19. Whitford-Stark 1987, p. 31.

Sources

Further reading

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