A new scientific discovery (of ours) in Siberia: mega-heavy water (and floating stones)!

Hi folks!

Well, well; I wasn’t expecting this: we’ve made a world-first discovery in Yakutia while on our Far-North Road-Trip – mega-heavy water!

The pioneering discovery was made in the Indigirka river, here. We were crossing said frozen river in our 4x4s, and we decided to take a photo-stop as the surrounding scenes were so spectacularly beautiful. Almost by chance, we looked down at one point, and that’s when we noticed something unusual in the frozen ice. Upon closer inspection – yes, there they were: floating rocks. Floating – as in, they must have been floating when the river water wasn’t frozen, and when it did freeze they were left stranded, suspended in the ice. Don’t believe me? Check out my pics! ->

Can you see the pebbles there? Neither lying on the riverbed (as you’d normally expect), nor floating on the surface (as some highly-porous pebbles might, like pieces of pumice, say). We thought we were seeing things, but no – there they were, truly dangling about mid-water!

Can’t make the pebbles out? Here are a large and tiny one outlined in red ->

And these photos haven’t been doctored in Photoshop; I can vouch for their unadulterated authenticity!…

Smaller rocks – pebbles – come close to the ice’s surface, while below them lurk larger boulders – and they’re not lying on the riverbed (the river is much too deep for them to have been visible if they were) ->

That these rocks and stones are suspended in the ice indicates (as mentioned) that they must have been buoyant in the water when it wasn’t frozen, in turn meaning that the water here is mega-heavy (our new term for this new discovery) – much heavier than the previously-known heavy water and super-heavy water.

We made our discovery in the so-called Indigirka Tube – a 25-km canyon that runs through the Chersky (mountain) Range (here).

Meanwhile, our expedition is carrying on its explorative investigations, and we’re counting on a continuation of this mind-blowing tale from the deep-frozen deep-Siberian side soon!…

In closing, my hearty congratulations to all participants in the expedition – and to the international community on its newest significant scientific revelation!