The famous Shergin Mine, a generally recognized monument to permafrost, received the federal status of a cultural heritage site. Based on the study of the soil in the Shergin mine, the existence of permafrost and rocks throughout the whole territory of the northeast of the country was proved for the first time in the world, YSIA reports.
"The object of cultural heritage ‘The well of merchant Fyodor Shergin in Yakutsk’ or ‘The Shergin Mine’ is of great historical importance for the study of permafrost in the northern hemisphere and is a unique historical monument that does not have an analogue on the territory of the Russian Federation,” note in the Department of the Republic for Protection of Cultural Heritage Sites.
The history of the mine dates back to 1827 when the merchant decided to dig a well in his yard. The search for clean water turned out unsuccessful, but the mine itself was the beginning of the study of the secrets of permafrost. In the summer of 1829, on the way to Alaska, a well-known explorer of Eastern Yakutia and Chukotka, Ferdinand von Wrangel, stopped in Yakutsk. With the support of the Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg, he persuaded the merchant to continue drilling the well for scientific purposes. The work on the shaft-sinking in permafrost continued until 1837, at which time the mine reached its modern depth of 116.4 meters.
For the first time, the temperature of frozen soils in the mine was measured at great depths, geological studies were performed. It became a source of instrumentally obtained factual data, confirming and irrefutably proving the presence of permafrost. Emperor Nicholas the First awarded Fyodor Shergin with a gold medal and a gold ring with a diamond for his outstanding work and for his services to science.