Gallery. Khibiny and Lovozero Tundras. RDC ScanEx

Gallery

Title
Khibiny and Lovozero Tundras

Acquisition date
25.09.2004

Sensor
Radarsat mode Standard1

600 x 520
JPEG (312 KB)

Khibiny and Lovozero Tundras

The submitted radar image was acquired from the RADARSAT off-nadir SAR imaging instrument with nominal spatial resolution of 25 meters and horizontal polarization of signal. Imagery was performed in “Standard1” mode with side scanning at angles from 19.4 to 26.8 degrees, which brings to serious image geometric distortions across the satellite track and to stretching of scanned objects. Besides, brightness interpretation of the image will be difficult, as backscatter prevails in the return signal and its strength does not differ much for coarse or flat surface.
This radar image shows two U-shape main mountain ranges: the Khibiny and Lovozero Tundras with the deepest Kola Peninsula Umbozero lake located in between. The famous town of the miners, Kirovsk, is situated to the south of the Khibiny Mountains on the bank of the Lake Bolshoy Vudyavr. Most inhabitants of this town are working in mining industry. These mountains are part of the most ancient Earth’s rock structures – the Baltic fundamental crystalline formations, which have lived through several glaciations. Having similar elevation (Khibiny, Udychvymchorr mountain – 1200 m and Lovozero Tundra, Angvundaschorr mountain – 1127 km), these two ranges differ a lot visually. On the back-and-white background of the image the rounded dome of Lovozero can be clearly seen, indicating its flattened surface, slightly dissected with shallow pockets. The Khibiny Mountains and branches are higher and steeper, which can also be detected on the image: crest lines are lighter due to high backscatter, whereas radio shadow stresses the canyon and mountain slopes. Besides, taper and pinnacled summits are characteristic of the Khibiny Mountains.

The Khibiny and Lovozero Tundras have rich deposits of rare minerals basically from the entire Mendeleyev table. For example, in the postmagmatic formations of Eveslogchorrsky tectonic zone of the Khibiny massive, 27 rare minerals were found, two of them – perlialite and denisovite – were detected in the rock for the first time. Eudialite, or “Lappish blood”, can be called a “carte de visite” of the Khibiny Mountains and Lovozero Tundras. There is an old legend saying that during a cruel battle between the Lapps and the Chuds, the Lappish blood dropping on the ground turned into stones.

Currently the apatite-nepheline rock, discovered back in the 20s by the academician A. Fersman, became very famous world-wide. Nephelinic syenites are precious aluminous and sodium raw materials, whereas apatite – is the source for phosphate chemical fertilizers. Due to rich mineral resources, mountains massifs became the arena for economic activities in the Murmansk region, thus causing irreparable harm to the nature. For example development of fields in Oleny creek and Partomchorr are detrimental for the Khibiny national park.

The Khibiny massive which is 250 million years old is referred to the unique system “Mountains of Fennoskandia” and is of interest for travelers from all over the world for different reasons. Some of them are attracted to the Khibiny Mountains as the first alpinist region in Russia and in the world, located beyond the Arctic Circle; others are interested in the unique landscapes, or still try to discover the legendary and enigmatic country of Hyperborean, located in the ancient times on the territory of the modern North Pole and northern outskirts of Eurasia and Northern America with the center on the sacred mountain of Meru. Some researchers believe that Hyperborean was probably the cradle of the human civilizations and the colonization of the Earth started from there. In 1922 the expedition of Barchenko and Kondiain searched for the ancestors of Indo-Aryan, who migrated from this region in fifth millennium B.C., near one of the most mysterious places on the Kola Peninsula - Seidozero, or the “lake of mountain ghosts”. In our days multiple legends and anomalous effects are related to the Seidozero, backed up by the mystic Cyclopean drawings on the bottom of the lake and on cliffs, by rune stones (seids), by the remnants of a prehistoric observatory and by the loss of several expeditions in this region.

Title:	Khibiny and Lovozero Tundras
Acquisition date:	25.09.2004
Sensor:	Radarsat mode Standard1

©2005-2010 R&D Center ScanEx. All Rights Reserved.mailto: webmaster@scanex.ru

©2005-2010 R&D Center ScanEx. All Rights Reserved.
mailto: webmaster@scanex.ru