Large intrusions such as in the Norilsk almost always have an extrusive component. This means the magma breaks the surface. Not far from Norilsk this happened. Here you see the impressive Putorana mountains. A tremendous formation of basalt, which takes about 1 hour to fly across. Rivers and ice eroded over 600 meter deep canyons in this so called basalt trap.
[Photo Maurice de Graaf, June 2003]


The Taimyrski mine in Norilsk. On the left are the concrete shafts.
[photo: Norilsk Nikel]