Ecological and biogeochemical studies of the Bureya Reservoir in the area of a giant landslide

Abstract

For the first time in the Russian Far East, , a temperature of, a giant landslide with a volume of 24.5 million m³ occurred in December 2018 at 32 °C. The landslide was accompanied by a massive rock movements that collapsed directly into the Bureya Reservoir. It completely blocked the access of water to the Bureya Hydroelectric Power Station and provoked a tsunami. According to geomorphologists’ research, the Bureya landslide is one of the largest in the world in terms of tsunami wave height and is a unique natural phenomenon in an ice-covered reservoir. To assess the ecological and biogeochemical state of the Bureya Reservoir in winter and summer (2019-2022), comprehensive studies of water composition in the landslide influence zone, using gas chromatography, spectrography and microbiology, were carried out . The obtained results support the idea on complex biogeochemical processes during cyclic thawing-freezing of rocks and explosive emission of methane accumulated in the pore space.