Siberia field work 2025

As part of the “Mirichun Cave 2025” expedition organized by the Irkutsk Speleological Club, they participated in the exploration and survey of newly discovered parts of Mirichun Cave (Eastern Sayan Mountains). As a result, the mapped length of the cave expanded from 800 m to over 3 km, with significant sections still unexplored. From the newly discovered areas, samples of cryogenic cave carbonates (CCC) and stalagmites were collected for further analysis.
Additionally, in Mechta Cave on the northwestern shore of Lake Baikal, a new stalagmite core was drilled. This complements a core obtained in 2024, which revealed stalagmite growth dating back to approximately 1.5 million years.
The next phase of fieldwork focused on the area surrounding Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains—a site renowned for its exceptional 300,000 year-old paleoanthropological record. Denisova Cave has yielded remains of Anatomically Modern Humans, Siberian Neanderthals, and Denisovans, including evidence of cohabitation between Neanderthals and Denisovans.
Although the cave itself lacks speleothem formations, the team visited five nearby caves and collected 15 stalagmites. This is a collaborative project with the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Russian Academy of Sciences, with the aim of supplementing the region’s archaeological record with palaeoclimate data.