There will take place international research expedition «The depth of Altai – 2016» from the 19th to the 30th of June in the Republic of Altai. It is aimed at study and cadastral registration of Altai caves, first of all the unique cave Kok-Tash. The expedition is being organized by the Russian Geographical Society (Novosibirsk, Moscow, Irkutsk and the Crimean branches of the Society), and it is being headed by the Chairman of the Commission of Speleology of Novosibirsk regional branch of the Russian Geographical Society, the head of Novosibirsk club of speleologists Stanislav Kuptsov.
-Kok-Tash is the deepest cave in Siberia, - Kuptsov says. – Moreover, that is the only one cave with depth of over 300 meters on the territory of North Asia. That is one of the most complicated cave systems if Russia, and it has not been fully investigated yet. That is what makes the expedition so interesting.
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By the standards of speleological projects, the number of participants of «The depth of Altai» project is very large, - Kuptsov told. There are more than 60 people being sent to the cave, but the speleological party usually consists of 7, or of 10 researchers maximum.
Specificity of psychology is in that fact that it is located at the intersection of science and sport, - the head of the expedition explains. – Only that one who has proper sports and technical training, - can carry out research in such difficult caves. That is why the speleology has not become a mass science: the armchair scientists would not cope with that.
Payment for complexity – is an opportunity to make a real scientific breakthrough. The caves perhaphs are being the only place in the world, where the first time discoveries are possible, - Stanislav Kuptsov is smiling: «The mountains, oceans, plains – all that are available for studying from satellites, but it is not possible to look under the ground from satellite». The speleologists are really making discoveries often, including the Altai. For example, here is located a famous Denisovskaya cave, where have been recently found the remains of extinct «denisovan», which made the scientists to revise paleoanthropological classification.
Presumably, the denisovan (from which at present there are only a few fragments of remains available) inhabited a number of Asian territories. The denisovan has been selected only based on studies of DNA of the other species and subspecies of ancient primates. It has been found that one of the specific features of the genome of the denisovan is inherited by the current Tibetans – it is possible that that was exactly that thing that helped the to adapt to life at high altitude.
-And the caves are the only place, where you can see the nature in that form, in which it was millions of years ago, - Stanislav Kuptsov adds. - Without later accretions. That gives an opportunity to study, for instance, the history of climate change for many thousands of years. That is for the famous speleologist from Austria Yuri Dublyanskiy is coming to our expedition. All possible growths and formations in the caves are being invaluable material for him.
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Thus, all the participants of the expedition are well prepared - both from the scientific and from sports and technical point of view. «There is no that kind of contest for the expedition, - Kuptsov explained. – I do invite there only those participants, who are recommended by the people, whom I trust.
In addition to a large number, the special feature of the expedition will be its technical equipment. Topographic survey of the cave will be will be conducted using a laser rangefinder with triaxial compass, integrated therein, the caver told. That enables to create the schemes of the caves with pinpoint accuracy. In addition to that is hydro leveling, which is necessary to record the depth of the cave.
There are 13 branches of the Russian Geographical Society (besides Moscow, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk and the Crimean branches, there are branches of the Society of Altai, Krasnoyarsk, Sverdlovsk, Orenburg, Krasnodar, Bashkiria, Astrakhan, Adygea and St. Petersburg) taking part in the preparation of the expedition «The Depths of Altai – 2016». We will be watching the preparation of the expedition and report on its progress and results.