Lena Pillars is the name given to a spectacular rock formation located along the banks of the Lena River in far eastern Siberia, at less than a day's boat ride upriver (south) from the city of Yakutsk, the capital of the autonomous Sakha Republic. Formed in former Cambrian sea-basins, the pillars high of 150-300m looks like some buttresses isolated from each other by steep gullies developed by frost, directed along intervening joints. They were produced by the extreme continental climate, with an annual temperature range of almost 100 degrees Celsius (from -60 °C in winter to +40 °C in summer). Penetration of water from the surface has facilitated cryogenic processes (freeze-thaw action). The site also contains a wealth of Cambrian fossil, some of them unique. The Lena Pillars Nature Park was inscribed on the World Heritage List in 2012.
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