Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...
Loading...

No search results found for
“”

Make sure words are spelled correctly.

Try searching for a travel destination.

Places near me Random place

Popular Destinations

  • Paris
  • London
  • New York
  • Berlin
  • Rome
  • Los Angeles
Trips Places Foods Stories Newsletters
Sign In Join
Places near me Random place
All Finland Lappajärvi Lake Lappajärvi

Lake Lappajärvi

Nuclear waste experts study this prehistoric crater lake to envision landscapes one million years in the future.

Lappajärvi, Finland

Added By
Vincent Ialenti
Email
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list
CAPTION
The lake in the winter.   Santeri Viinamäki/CC BY-SA 4.0
Lake Lappajärvi   Santeri Viinamäki/CC BY-SA 4.0
Lake Lappajärvi.   Santeri Viinamäki/CC BY-SA 3.0
Lake Lappajärvi.   Lappajärvi/CC BY-SA 3.0
A pilot cave that’s part of the spent nuclear fuel repository.   kallerna/CC BY-SA 3.0
Been Here
Want to go
Added to list

About

About 77 million years ago, a meteorite crashed into what is now Finland’s Southern Ostrobothnia region. Today, serene Lake Lappajärvi rests in the approximately 14-mile wide crater crafted during the wake of this blast from the distant past. Locals still enjoy boating to Kärnänsaari, an island formed by the impact's melt rock. Paddling there is an encounter with the landscape’s deep history.

While visiting the lake—one of the largest crater lakes in Europe—you can hunt around for bits of Kärnäiitti, a rare rock that was formed by the meteorite's impact. People looking for some aquatic exercise can join the locals who paddleboat, canoe, and swim across its surface. There are also many walking trails that line its picturesque shores.

The deep, long history of Lake Lappajärvi has also attracted a very different kind of visitor, safety experts from a radioactive waste management company building an underground repository for spent nuclear fuel in Western Finland.

The experts are tasked with predicting how the nuclear waste's radioactivity, if it were to be somehow released from the repository someday, would interact with the region’s rocks, groundwater, ecosystems, and populations in the extreme long-term, many millennia from now. Most commonly they use computer models to assess how the waste repository might endure or degrade in the far future. But they also develop more speculative, quirky approaches in a report called Complimentary Considerations that is basically a hodgepodge of scientific evidence and PR tools aimed at persuading people of the facility’s safety.

This is where Lake Lappajärvi comes in. The report explains how the crater lake kept its form throughout numerous past Ice Age glaciation and post-Ice Age de-glaciation periods. After looking into the environment's past, safety assessment experts speculated we can expect only limited erosion and landmass movement throughout the repository’s multimillion-year futures.

Lappajärvi’s deep histories are, in this way, taken as windows into the deep future. Visions of far future worlds can emerge from analogies across time—extrapolating from long pasts to reckon long futures. This Finnish lake is one place where this creative approach to far future planning is taking place. Visiting landscapes like Lake Lappajärvi can help researchers adopt the long-termist mentality necessary for thinking more clearly about climate change, biodiversity, sustainability, nuclear waste, or even human extinction.

Related Tags

Time Deep Time Lakes Meteorites History Environment Long Now Locations Nuclear Water

Community Contributors

Added By

Vincent Ialenti

Edited By

petkonen, Meg, Kerry Wolfe

  • petkonen
  • Meg
  • Kerry Wolfe

Published

October 24, 2017

Edit this listing

Make an Edit
Add Photos
Sources
  • This Atlas Obscura post was derived from portions of this The Long Now Foundation blog post: http://blog.longnow.org/02016/07/05/craters-mudrock-tools-for-imagining-distant-future-finlands/
  • http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2014/09/14/347048876/envisioning-landscapes-of-our-very-distant-future
  • http://physicstoday.scitation.org/doi/pdf/10.1063/PT.3.3728
  • http://www.posiva.fi/en/final_disposal/safety/the_safety_case
  • http://www.posiva.fi/files/2995/POSIVA_2012-11_web.pdf
Lake Lappajärvi
Lake Lappajärvi
Lappajärvi
Finland
63.135109, 23.642364
Get Directions

Nearby Places

Alpo Koivumäki Safari Park

Kauhajoki, Finland

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Finland

Finland

Europe

Places 87
Stories 11

Nearby Places

Alpo Koivumäki Safari Park

Kauhajoki, Finland

miles away

Explore the Destination Guide

Photo of Finland

Finland

Europe

Places 87
Stories 11

Related Places

  • Antuni

    Castel di Tora, Italy

    Ruins of Antuni

    A semi-abandoned village destroyed by U.S. bombings during World War II dominates the valley of Turano.

  • The Dixie at dockside.

    North Webster, Indiana

    The Dixie Sternwheeler

    Indiana's oldest sternwheel paddleboat has been plying the placid waters of Webster Lake for 90 years.

  • The ruins of the Ritter Lumber Company’s sawmill at Hazel Creek near Proctor.

    Bryson City, North Carolina

    The Lost Town of Proctor

    The scant remains of this flooded historic village can be explored in one of the most remote areas of the Great Smokies.

  • Aerial view of Thunderbird Lodge

    Incline Village, Nevada

    Thunderbird Lodge

    This historic estate on the east shore of Lake Tahoe was home to an eccentric millionaire (and his pet elephant, Mingo).

  • Tswaing Crater.

    Soshanguve, South Africa

    Tswaing Meteorite Crater

    An ancient impact crater on the outskirts of Pretoria.

  • A part of the SS Good News.

    Mpulungu, Zambia

    Hulk of the SS Good News

    The forgotten remains of the first steamship that launched on Lake Tanganyika.

  • The beautiful view from the hill down to the lake.

    Sevan, Armenia

    Sevanavank

    This ancient monastery complex was transformed from an island to a peninsula when the lake was partially drained.

  • Oakland, California

    Cleveland Cascade

    A restored 1920s cascade stairway provides one of the best views of Oakland's Lake Merritt.

Aerial image of Vietnam, displaying the picturesque rice terraces, characterized by their layered, verdant fields.
Atlas Obscura Membership

Become an Atlas Obscura Member


Join our community of curious explorers.

Become a Member

Get Our Email Newsletter

Follow Us

Facebook YouTube TikTok Instagram Pinterest RSS Feed

Get the app

Download the App
Download on the Apple App Store Get it on Google Play
  • All Places
  • Latest Places
  • Most Popular
  • Places to Eat
  • Random
  • Nearby
  • Add a Place
  • Stories
  • Food & Drink
  • Itineraries
  • Lists
  • Video
  • Podcast
  • Newsletters
  • All Trips
  • Family Trip
  • Food & Drink
  • History & Culture
  • Wildlife & Nature
  • FAQ
  • Membership
  • Feedback & Ideas
  • Community Guidelines
  • Product Blog
  • Unique Gifts
  • Work With Us
  • About
  • FAQ
  • Advertise With Us
  • Advertising Guidelines
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Terms of Use
Atlas Obscura

© 2025 Atlas Obscura. All Rights Reserved.