Lena Pillars Nature Park
Lena Pillars Nature Park is marked by spectacular rock
pillars that reach a height of approximately 100 m along the banks of
the Lena River in the central part of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia). They
were produced by the region’s extreme continental climate with an
annual temperature range of almost 100 degrees Celsius (from –60 °C in
winter to +40 °C in summer). The pillars form rocky buttresses isolated
from each other by deep and steep gullies developed by frost shattering
directed along intervening joints. Penetration of water from the surface
has facilitated cryogenic processes (freeze-thaw action), which have
widened gullies between pillars leading to their isolation. Fluvial
processes are also critical to the pillars. The site also contains a
wealth of Cambrian fossil remains of numerous species, some of them
unique.