Macro-charcoal particles in lake sediments of Central Tunguska Plateau (Siberia, Evenkia) as a proxy of forest fires and possible trace of Tunguska 1908 Event
D. Yu. ROGOZIN1,2, G. N. BOLOBANSHCHIKOVA2, L. A. BURDIN1, A. V. MEYDUS3
1Institute of Biophysics SB RAS, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
2Siberian Federal University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
3Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University, Krasnoyarsk, Russia
Keywords: forest fires, charcoal, lake sediments, Lake Cheko, Evenkia, Tunguska 1908 Event
Abstract
In the bottom sediments of lakes Cheko and Zapovednoye, located in the southern part of the Evenk region (Krasnoyarsk Territory), the distributions of charcoal particles >100 microns have been analyzed. The background content of charcoal particles in sediments up to 1500 years ago was not less than in recent sediments. Thus, evidence was obtained that the intensity of fires in the vicinity of the studied lakes in the past was not less than at present, and during the XVI-XVIII centuries it was possibly even higher. Therefore, a sharp increase in forest fires in recent times reported for other regions is not confirmed for this territory, which is probably due to the lack of economic activity due to the extremely low population density. In Lake Cheko, a local maximum of charcoal particles was revealed at the sediments corresponding to the year of 1908, presumably being the trace of an extensive forest fire resulted from Tunguska 1908 catastrophe.
|
