Straight line ground features. Russia-Mongolia

[richardgb]

I fly the N. Europe - Tokyo route (across the Russian tundra and down across the Mongolian plateau fairly frequently) and have always been puzzled by the many straight line ground features. And when I say straight I mean ruler straight. They're more easily detectable in the winter when the ground is frozen solid with snow & ice.

I thought at first that they might be tracks created by the nomadic movements of people but since they are straight lines for many tens of miles at a time, never deviating around obvious rises and falls in the ground they don't somehow seem natural. I would imagine man-made trails would divert around hills and mountains for efficiency, but these just go on and on straight across frozen rivers up hill and down dale and only changing direction abruptly and occasionally.

Presumably others have seen these, and I find them endlessly fascinating. Has anyone any ideas about precisely what they are and how they are caused?

[OldDutchGuy]

How about a pipeline?

Heat of contents would make a distinct line in snow.

[richardgb]

Interesting thought but I doubt they are pipelines.

I've seen hundreds of them over the course of several hours across the very northern latitudes, well above 65 deg.N where there are no detectable settlements anywhere, and certainly non that would warrant a pipeline thousands of miles long.

[Little cloud]

Richard


I'd hazard a guess that you might be seeing power line routes. From 35,000 feet or so you might not see the line itself but the cleared corridor and tracks made by construction and maintenance vehicles. Could you find them on Google Earth or Bing Maps? I found a few and they appear to run to industrial plants, probably associated with mining, oil etc.


Typical corridor (found at random on Bing Maps):


http://i60.tinypic.com/2qbslu8.jpg

In this case I think it's two power lines side by side and the resulting cleared area, about 500' wide has been used for agriculture.

[richardgb]

Thanks Little Cloud,

I'd not considered power lines. We're off again next month to JP so I'll pay a bit closer attention to be sure.

[MrSnuggles]

Power lines looks like the possible "culprit" here.

If they go into voids, you might consider remnants of the latest Ice Age. I know here in Sweden we have something called "rullstensåsar". They are collections of stones deposited by the melting ice. Some of these can be seen from the air although most of them are overgrown. I guess they would be more clearly seen in an environment of snow and tundra since the treetops won't obscure your view. They can be surprisingly straight.

Happy hunting, please let us know what you find!

[Agaricus bisporus]

In remote tundra areas they aren't likely to be powerlines - powerlines for whom?

The are most likely seismic survey lines where seismic teams run a bulldozer in a laser sightline to form a "road" for the seismic survey trucks and support vehicles (fuel, stores, equipment, accoustic teams, messing & accommodation - quite a convoy) who fire dynamite shots in shallow boreholes and record the echoes miles back down the line for oil or mineral exploration. In desert and tundra where growth is slow they show up for decades.

These lines tend to reach from horizon to horizon and are as only wide as a single-lane road. Powerline easements are several times as wide, plus you can see the pylons.


6° 52.718' N 45° 12.276' E

Sorry, can't seem to attach an image. These are seismic lines in the Ogaden, Ethiopia. Maybe someone else can post the pic?

[Little cloud]

Ab, you could well be right. I've had another look at Bing Maps, guesstimating Richard's route towards Tokyo. There's a mixture of straight line features, a few which are 'healing over' and could well be seismic survey lines. In high res image areas it is possible to zoom in and see the power lines in some corridors, not pylons but goalpost style poles which are not that obvious from above. The Russian grid, from the numerous Siberian, hydro, gas and nuclear power stations now extends all the way to China.

[onetrack]

Seismic survey lines are the likely origin. Additionally, mineral exploration also involves "gridding" for drilling purposes. Bulldozers are used to clear gridlines in rectangular patterns so drilling rigs can gain access to precise points on the grid. The drill results are then correlated with drilling depth and geographical position to outline ore bodies in 3D.

Natural gas pipelines are commonly run through isolated regions, and they have access easements/roads each side of the pipeline.
Even if the pipeline is buried (as many are), the access easement will still be visible from the air.

China has the worlds longest NG pipeline - it's 8700kms long and runs from Turkmenistan to Southern China.
There are 8 branches from this pipeline planned, with 3 already installed.
This pipeline brings China's pipeline total, to over 40,000 kms of NG pipelines.

World's longest natural gas pipeline operationalised: China - The Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/worlds-longest-natural-gas-pipeline-operationalised-china/article2147645.ece)