Home – Home – Jornals – Earth’s Cryosphere 2021 number 6

The problem of sustainable economic development is acutely manifested in the Arctic regions, which is due to the vulnerability of the Arctic infrastructure to climate change and landscape transformations. The reasons for deformations of buildings and structures in the Russian Arctic are considered. The problems and prospects for the development of the permafrost monitoring network are identified as the basis for the development of technical solutions for adapting the Arctic infrastructure to climate change. The analysis of technological solutions for control and ensuring the reliability of the bearing capacity of foundations by methods of regulating the state of permafrost soils is presented, a preliminary analysis of the economic efficiency of protective measures is carried out, the cost of which is at least an order of magnitude less than the expected damage to infrastructure by the middle of the century.

The ability of snow cover to accumulate airborne substances allows to analyze spatiotemporal geochemical patterns and to detect polluted areas. Spatial features of geochemical regional distribution of dust deposited in the snow cover in areas remote from industrial centers were identified. The snow cover of Tomsk, Shegarka and Kozhevnikovo districts of the Tomsk region was chosen to be the object of the research. The observations were carried out in the period from 1995 to 2000. The measurements of melt snow filtrate included: pH, concentrations of nitrate and ammonia nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, sodium, chlorine, while the solid residue was analyzed for heavy metal contents (Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, Co, Mn, Cr, Ni) using atomic absorption spectrophotometry method. The average snow cover depth is evenly distributed in the study area and varies from year to year. Contents of dust, ammonia (), phosphorus (P₂O₅), Mg in snow on the forest floor significantly differ (an upward bias) from areas of arable land. Ions , alkaline and alkaline-earth elements show an increasing trend (relative to the background values) near the industrial zone. The levels of siderophilic and lithophilic elements, copper and zinc increase near the industrial zone of Tomsk agglomeration. Lead shows a mosaic distribution throughout the territory. In disparate locations (Batkat village, Komarovo fens), dust and heavy metals contents in the snow cover were found to be higher relative to the background values.

The results of geocryological studies in the Ytymdzha depression of the Aldan Shield have been presented. From 1999 to 2001, several exploration wells were drilled in the central part of the depression, which made it possible for the first time to obtain the information on the geotemperature field, the thermophysical properties of rocks and the thickness of the permafrost stratum. The long-term series of monitoring of the temperature regime of the active layer obtained for the bogged floodplain terrace, the upland terrace, and the slope of the southern exposure have been adduced. The temperature of rocks at a depth of 1 m varies from 4.8 to -11.7 °С, with average annual temperature ranging from -1.0 to -4.9 °С. The work has resulted in the sublongitudinal permafrost-geothermal section along the central part of the Ytymdzha depression, within which the thickness of permafrost varies from 106 to 251 m.

Remote sensing methods of retrogressive thaw slumps (RTS) - also called thermocirques (TC) - study include identification of them on vast territories. The satellite imagery mosaic of the Yandex.Maps service covering the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas was innovatively used for this purpose. All RTS (TC) occurred at the lake coasts were classified as active and stabilized, the orientation of each RTS (TC) was determined. We identified 86 active and 20 stabilized RTS in the Yamal peninsula and 224 active RTS versus 109 stabilized in Gydan. The distribution of RTS orientation was found to be not random. Multiple comparison of RTS orientation over four directions showed statistically significant predominance of Northern RTS orientation over the Eastern, as well as Western orientation over the Eastern. At the same time, none of the orientations showed statistically significant predominance over all the others. No statistically significant relationship between RTS orientation and RTS activity was found.

The paper presents an estimate of annual precipitation amount for the winter period (1967-2006) in the basins of the Charysh and Anuy mountain rivers. A kinematic model for air mass movement when crossing orographic barriers is used for calculations. The initial data are monthly precipitation totals (November-March) obtained from meteorological and gaging stations located within the basins and at the adjacent territory. Based on the single-factor dependencies and multiple correlation/regression analysis, we assess the dependences of melt runoff depth on total precipitation for winter and flood (April-June) time periods for gaging stations “Charyshsky state farm” on Charysh river and “Anuysky state farm” on Anuy.

The purpose of the article is to reveal the conditions of occurrence and formation of subpermafrost waters, which have been exposed by wells in the Paleozoic, Triassic terrigenous rocks and the Lower Cretaceous granitoids of the Chukotka Upland. In the Paleozoic strata, the confined subpermafrost waters were exposed at depths from 223 to 340 m. The specific yield of wells varies from 0.01 to 0.5 L/(s·m), the composition is predominantly chloride, mineralization ranges from 0.2 to 1.3 g/dm³. In the Triassic rocks at depths from 100 to 300 m, the piezometric surface of waters is higher than the wellhead levels by 3-4 m and up to 58.4 m. The specific yield of wells varies from 0.00001 to 0.25 L/(s·m). The waters are chloride, hydrocarbonate and sulphate, salinity ranges from 0.1 to 3.1 g/dm³. In granitoid massifs, the thickness of permafrost near the sea coast is about 100 m; on the watersheds, it is about 450 m. The specific yield of wells varies from 0.0001 to 0.013 L/(s·m). The obtained data, confirmed by the magnetotelluric sounding, indicate the development of hydrogeological massifs composed of igneous and metamorphosed rocks in the upland. Structures with quasi-stratum fracture reservoirs, associated with overthrusts and faults, were formed in the terrigenous Triassic strata. The impermeable fault planes divide the quasi-strata into sections, which are poorly interconnected hydraulically. For this reason, in the Triassic subpermafrost strata, the stagnant or extremely impeded water exchange predominates persisting for more than 400 thousand years; in the hydrogeological massifs, the water exchange is more active.