Home – Home – Jornals – Russian Geology and Geophysics 2003 number 4

The Pleistocene subaerial sequence of West Siberia and other regions of temperate climate formed in a continuous-discontinuous mode during late stages of the Matuyama paleomagnetic epoch and the whole Brunhes epoch. This sequence has a cyclic structure. Each cyclite includes three climatoliths, which reflect changes from warm to cold environment. Comparison of the structures of subaerial and other deposits indicates that the subaerial sequence reflects multiple cyclic changes of environment from warm-arid (loess deposits) to warm humid (soil) and then to cold humid (overmoistening and cryogenic deposits).
The recent upper cyclite, belonging to deglaciation and the Holocene, is not complete. The present epoch of soil formation will give way to cooling with the appearance of permafrost in the nearest geologic future. Comprehensive investigation of subaerial deposits is the main line of inquiry in the development of the glaciation theory. It is important to correlate these deposits with the processes occurring in the off-glacier, near-glacier, and glacier zones. All predictions of the future climate should take into account the knowledge of subaerial deposits.