Charskie Sands. The most irregular desert ever

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

There are not so many “paradise corners” on Earth. But there are few spaces suitable for life - more than enough. For example, about 11% of the entire land area is occupied by deserts. And mankind has never felt sympathy for them. For most people, the word "desert" immediately has negative associations.

For the pessimist, the desert is all about trouble: heat, dust storms, the last drop of water, dehydration and painful death. An optimist can dilute this gloomy list: "camel caravan", "oasis" and "happy salvation".

A romantic, speaking of the desert, will certainly brighten up the harsh description with phrases: "amazing lunar landscapes", "exotic beauties", "extraordinary adventures" … And the skeptic will be categorical: "endless monotony" and "extreme boredom."

All will agree on only one thing: that the desert is in one way or another - extreme, survival, but not a place to rest.

But, there is one cozy desert on Earth, at the mention of which (among those who have already managed to get to know it), extremely positive emotions are born.

This is the Charskie Peski tract, which is located in the very north of the Trans-Baikal Territory, in the Kalarsky District. It is located in the middle of the Chara valley surrounded by mountains.

This is a real desert with ridges of dunes 20-25 m high, with wind ripples in the sand, with singing dunes and sandstorms. Here you can see the remains of trees that died under the onslaught of the desert and the characteristic creeping grass clinging to the moving sand. For a complete resemblance to the deserts of Central Asia, there are not enough camels and scorpions here.

And there is still no one important feature - the oppressive feeling of universal loneliness. Because Charskie Sands is a very small desert. Its area is about 50 km2. Small, cozy, but not a toy. Everything is real here. In bad weather, it is rather sad to be in the tract, especially if low cloud cover hides mountains that serve as landmarks. Then you can get lost among the dunes. And, in fact, there have been such cases. But, before death, no one got lost in Charskie Sands and did not suffer from dehydration, because, firstly, the size of the dune field is only 5x10 km, and, secondly, the sandy desert is surrounded on all sides by taiga, swamps and streams. This incredible coexistence of two theoretically incompatible types of landscapes is the most surprising fact.

Charsky Sands are called "a miracle of nature". This miracle has been assigned the status of a natural geological monument, and the strange, "wrong" location of the desert in the middle of swampy marshes and taiga raises bewilderment and many questions. Often in publications about the Charskaya desert one can find such expressions: "mysterious origin …", "no one can really explain …", "scientists have been puzzling for a long time …".

In fact, with the learned heads, everything is in order. Let's start with the fact that the Chara Valley is a depression between two mountain systems. From the north, the basin is bounded by the relatively young Kodar ridge, and from the southern side, the basin is supported by the more ancient Udokan and Kalarsky ridges. Kodar is an amazingly beautiful structure of a typical Alpine type: rugged pointed peaks, narrow saw-like ridges, vertical kilometer-long rocky cliffs, trough valleys and glaciers. The mountains rise sharply over the Chara valley, practically without foothills, like a wall, at once for 2-3 kilometers. Because of this, Kodar is sometimes called "the small Trans-Baikal Himalayas".

This is the central, highest part of Kodar, where modern glaciers can be seen today. For a long time, the glaciers on Kodar were a mystery to scientists. Then for many years they served as the subject of scientific controversy. Some researchers did not admit the idea of the possibility of the existence of modern glaciation in the north of Transbaikalia. It was believed that these are ordinary snowfields. Finally, relatively recently, after the Great Patriotic War, the Kodar glaciers were "discovered". They are relatively small and the ice thickness reaches a maximum of 50 m.

The glaciers that descended from the mountains into the lake 45 thousand years ago were 10-20 times more powerful. Moving, they plowed the valleys with their mass like a scraper, giving them a characteristic trough-like shape.

The ancient reservoir in the Chara Valley existed for about 2-3 thousand years, and during this time an impressive thickness of sediments accumulated at its bottom.

When the ice age ended, the dam melted, leaked, the gigantic reservoir flowed out, and only hundreds of small relics remained from it, scattered today like fragments throughout the Chara Valley in the form of small lakes. The bottom sediments of the ancient reservoir, once on the surface, fell under the influence of the atmosphere. For many thousands of years they were blown by the winds, crowded into the dunes, until they acquired the modern look of a sandy desert.

In fact, in the middle of winter, and especially in January, when frost of minus 50 degrees is not uncommon, few people want to walk along the Sands. The people in the north are accustomed to the cold, but it is better at this time to sit at home by the stove.

17. The village of Chara. January

Chara winter is reluctant to retreat, in March there is still no smell in spring. But, gradually the daylight hours lengthens, the heat becomes more. In April, snow begins to melt from the sands. It melts unevenly, leaving behind spotty textures and bizarre streaks on the damp sand.

In the second half of May, real spring bursts into the tract. The sands are blooming. This is perhaps the most spectacular segment of the annual life cycle of the Chara desert. Sleep-grass - the Trans-Baikal snowdrop - is making its way out of the ground in massive quantities.

But, there is no one especially to admire the placers of purple flowers on the yellow sand. The flowering period of the desert coincides with the melting of ice on the river. Wed Sakukan. The multi-layered ice cake, baked over the winter, begins to disintegrate and turns into a loose ice porridge. Dangerous deep gullies are formed in the ice, and tourists at this time on the Sands are a rarity.

Yes, and the weather in May is unstable: a sunny day can quickly give way to a dusty storm, or, in general, it will pour out fresh snow and cover the newly blossoming snowdrops.

In the northern and eastern parts of the massif, going down to the border with the forest, you can observe an interesting natural phenomenon all year round. Here, water oozes out from under the thickness of the sands. A fan of miniature streams soon merges into a single stream, turns into a forest stream, and eventually flows into the Middle Sakukan. About why water flows out from under the desert, you can also read fables in publications: "Under the sands there is a whole lake of fresh water …". What is it like!? A sandy island floating on the lake !?

But in fact, everything is as follows.

Almost the entire valley of the river. Chara is shackled by permafrost. On the left side of the Chara Valley, deeper than the permafrost layer, there is a very large Srednesakukanskoye groundwater deposit. From under the ice shell, these waters can escape to the surface only through thawed patches in the permafrost. And there is no freezing only under the Charskie Sands massif. Here the underground river finds its way out through many springs that do not freeze even in the most severe frosts. Therefore, in winter, ice forms in many places around the desert. Ice soaring in the fierce cold, coming close to the foot of the dunes, is an extremely exotic sight. Sparkling frost covers trees, bushes and blades of grass with a thick layer. Snow corals growing from soaring water, mountains and blue skies…. Once you see such a picture, you will hardly ever forget.

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This is how the Charskaya desert amazes its guests every year from spring to winter with new wonders.