Glacier Kolka, the Karmadon Gorge, the Republic of North Ossetia. Description of the glacier. Catastrophe of 2002

Magnificent nature, majestic mountains, turquoise rivers, clean air and hospitable people - all this is the North Caucasus. Thousands of tourists from all over the world come to these places to admire the wondrous nature. Once one of the most picturesque places was the Karmadon Gorge (Republic of North Ossetia). It is often called Genaldonsky. The second name it received in honor of the river Genaldon, which flows here. Everything changed after the terrible tragedy that occurred in 2002.

Gorge

The Karmadon Gorge, a photo of which appeared on the covers of many world publications thirteen years ago, became known to many after the descent of the glacier. It is part of the Greater Caucasus. These are two rows of majestic brown steep cliffs. Previously, there were pretty houses between them, camp sites were located, people were resting. Now there is a blackish, like a dump of a mine, a tattered mass. It is a descended glacier, who at one time buried one hundred and thirty-four people.

The extraordinary beauty of the gorge in one September day of 2002 was destroyed by a natural disaster.

Glacier Kolka

Karovo - valley glacier, which is in the upper reaches of the Genaldon River ( the Terek River basin ). He enters the mountain system of the Caucasus on the north side of the Kazbek-Dzhimarai massif, called Kolka.

The dimensions of the glacier are quite impressive: its length is 8.4 kilometers, the area is 7.2 square kilometers. It takes its beginning on a mountain peak (height 4780 m), the tongue of the glacier is at an altitude of 1980 meters. The height of the snow border (firn line) is 3000 meters.

The Kolka Glacier refers to the so-called pulsating type. They are characterized by an active and sometimes unexpected in certain periods of advancement of the body. Such movements of the glacier (sergi), as a rule, are accompanied by ice crashes, the formation of mudflows. Often, the sergeys have catastrophic consequences.

Glacier before the tragedy

It is known that the Kolka Glacier attacked three times in the twentieth century - in 1902, 1969 and 2002. Although experts-glaciologists believe that he was distinguished by the movements of the ice in previous centuries. For example, the "classical", or "slowed" serge Kolki, was celebrated in 1834. But then he did not bring much trouble.

In the XX century, the most destructive advancement of the glacier was recorded in July 1902. During this gathering, thirty-six people died, more than 1,500 head of cattle. Was buried under the thick ice of the famous resort of Karmadon, destroyed many buildings.

The destructive shift was accompanied by an ice-stone mudflow. At great speed, he passed the valley of Genaldon nine kilometers. That year, about seventy-five million cubic meters of ice and stones were taken, which can be compared to a cube with a side of four hundred and fifteen meters. The ice was melted for twelve years, and in 1914 the valley below the Miley Glacier was freed from it. Comparing how the Kolka glacier behaved in 1902, when the speed of the ice-mud mass reached 150 km / h, it can be argued that the 1902 move was very similar to the 2002 catastrophe.

In 1969 the glacier Kolka behaved much more restrainedly - the movement was smoothed and did not lead to catastrophic consequences. The ice movement began on September 28, 1969, and a week later the Kolka Glacier overcame only one thousand three hundred meters, reaching the end of the tongue of the Miley glacier. Thus, its average speed was 10 m / h. Then it slowed down to 1 m / hour, and on January 10 (1970) the glacier stopped. Over the entire period, the glacier has advanced four kilometers. He sank down the valley at seven hundred and eighty meters.

In 1970, glaciologists were sure that the melting of the glacier would take about two and a half decades.

No signs of trouble

Local residents have always considered the Kolka Glacier to be extremely dangerous. This colossal mass of ice that hung over the gorge inspired fear of an impending catastrophe, but glaciologists (experts observing the glaciers) were quite optimistic. In addition, the local residents of the village of Upper Karmadon for a long history could not recall any disturbing manifestations from their formidable neighbor. Nothing foreshadowed the impending catastrophe.

The tragedy in Karmadone was a complete surprise for all its participants - for the group of Sergei Bodrov, local residents, rescue services. People quite quietly engaged in ordinary affairs, and the crew of S. Bodrov finished the shooting. They were scheduled to start in the morning, but for a number of reasons they were postponed for the afternoon. About 19.00, as it's very early in the mountains, people began to gather. And at that time changes began in the upper reaches of the gorge, leading to events that no one could have dreamed of in a terrible dream.

Catastrophe of 2002

People often forget the past. The last catastrophic collapse of the Kolka glacier occurred a hundred years ago. Naturally, there were no more eyewitnesses to those events, and the Republic of North Ossetia kept in memory only the stories of its old people transmitted from father to son. True, there were a few descriptions of the consequences of the 1902 disaster. They were made by Russian scientists who visited the Karmadon gorge immediately after the glacier crash.

Over time, the horror of that tragedy began to blur out of memory, and in places destroyed by the glacier settlements people began to build new ones.

At twenty o'clock (on September 20) a glacier came down the bed of Genaldon in the Karmadon gorge. Its length was five kilometers, thickness - from 10 to 100 meters and a width of more than 200 meters. The ice mass is 21 million cubic meters.

During the movement of the ice, a village of eleven kilometers in length was formed, with a width of about 50 meters, and a thickness of more than 10 meters, a volume of twelve million cubic meters. He completed his movement seven kilometers south of the village of Gisel.

Consequences of the disaster

The descent of the glacier Kolka destroyed the village of Upper Karmadon and all those who were at that time in the gorge. The non-residential three-story building of the "Karmadon" sanatorium, remarkable recreation centers of the Ministry of Justice and Ossetian University, over one and a half kilometers of power lines, water intake wells and treatment facilities were completely destroyed.

In the village of Karmadon, under the ice thickness, there were fifteen houses. The descent of the glacier Kolka provoked the strongest flood on the river Giseldon.

Human Victims

The most terrible consequence of a glacial gathering is the death of people. In the gorge at the time of the catastrophe, the group worked S. Bodrov, shooting in these beautiful places the movie "Messenger". Interdepartmental commission came to the conclusion that after such a descent no one could survive here. Nevertheless, for a long time there was a hope that someone could be saved. Demented by grief relatives took an active part in rescue work, although experts were sure that there was no one to save here.

Rescue operations

A long and painful year and a half, search and rescue operations were conducted in the gorge. To the great regret, the efforts of rescuers, scientists, volunteers were unsuccessful. Under the mass of ice, only seventeen bodies of the dead were found. Under the hundred-meter-high mass of ice, it was impossible to find either dead or even more living. A year together with professional rescuers and their volunteers assisted the relatives of the deceased. For them, the last hope was the ice-covered tunnel, in which, according to some versions, people could hide.

Tunnel

Specialists assured that the idea with the tunnel is unpromising, there no one could survive. Nevertheless, no one could deny the relatives of the victims, who insisted that the tunnel be drilled wells. Under a huge layer of ice, rescuers for a long time could not find the former tunnel. Nineteen wells were drilled. The twentieth attempt was successful. Divers went down the 69-meter-long tunnel. As expected, it was empty. After many relatives, who until the last believed in a miracle, recognized the death of their loved ones.

During the search operation, seventeen bodies were found. One hundred seventeen people are considered missing. The search was terminated on May 7, 2004.

The reasons for the collapse of the glacier

What was the reason for the collapse of the glacier in 2002? There are several versions of the tragedy. But most scientists are inclined to believe that the main reason was the gas discharge from the Kazbek volcano (sleeping).

This was confirmed in 2007 at an international conference that was held in North Ossetia. On it, the geologists summed up the results of the studies, which lasted five years. The causes of the catastrophe in the Karmadon Gorge were named.

Scientists admitted that today it is the largest glacial catastrophe in the world in terms of volume of displaced material. The mass of descended ice, stones, water passed seventeen kilometers through the valley and formed a huge dam, the length of which exceeds four kilometers.

According to another popular version, this natural catastrophe could be caused by numerous rock and ice collapses in the rear part of the glacier.

Gorge today

A terrible picture is presented by the Karmadon gorge today: long, black-tinted, black tunnels cut off by the razor, the banks of the river, and the mountains of the ground.

In Vladikavkaz and, of course, on the site of the tragedy, there are monuments with the names of all who died and disappeared on that fateful September day of 2002.

At the end of October 2002, before the entrance to the Karmadon gorge, a memorial plate was erected in memory of all those killed.

A year later (in 2003) a memorial was opened. He is a figure of a young man, frozen in a block of ice. The monument is set on a plain, near the village of Gisel. It was here that the glacier came.

In 2004, in the place where the volunteer search camp was located, the memory of the "Sorrowful Mother", created for voluntary donations, was installed in Karmadon. It is a twenty-five-ton stone brought by a glacier, and next to it is the figure of a grieving woman waiting for her son.

Relatives do not know how long the Kolka glacier will melt, but everyone is waiting for it to happen, and they will be able to find the remains of their relatives. The problem is that with each year the melting slows down - the mud cake on its surface increases, which slows down the process.

Kolka Glacier before and after the tragedy

Once the Karmadon gorge, the photo of which you can see in this article, was a picturesque resort area. Particularly beautiful were its upper reaches. Very close to the glacier you could see "Glade Shelestenko" with a shelter house. And a little below the Miley Glacier were located Verkhnekarmadonskiye thermal springs. I was fascinated by the sight of the grotto in the language of Miley, the icefall, the Kazbek plateau.

The Kolka Glacier before and after the tragedy poses a serious danger. In recent years, he is again increasing the mass of ice. According to scientists, the next gathering can be expected in fifteen years. Therefore, attention is now focused on him.

In recent years, it is noted that the glacier Kolka is melting intensely. Now experts have recorded flooding in the Koban Gorge - it is in it that the "buried" Karmadon Gorge lies "in it". On the body of the glacier a lake was formed, the waters from which are dangerous to the Sanib village. Water is a threat to several large flat villages that are in the mainstream of the river Giseldon.

According to forecasts of specialists, the melting of the Kolka glacier may drag on for several decades. It is terrible that throughout these years he will be extremely dangerous for people living here.

Many scientists believe that the Karmadon mountain hollow and gorge should have been declared a dangerous territory in the late sixties of the last century, after the shifts of the Kolka glacier. But, unfortunately, people began to forget about them too quickly.

Research continues

Scientists are still studying the Kolka Glacier. Just recently, the leading glaciologist of our country Nikolai Osokin came from the Karmadon gorge. He conducted a serious research work at the site of the glacier. And next summer a representative expedition of scientists will leave for these places. I really want to believe that their work will help to prevent the terrible consequences of the next gathering of the glacier. But there is no doubt that this will happen someday.