Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T16:05:45.155Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Thermokarst in Siberia and Its Influence on the Development of Lowland Relief

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Tadeáš Czudek  and
Jaromiŕ Demek
Tadeáš Czudek
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Brno, Mendlovo nám. 1, Czechoslovakia
Jaromiŕ Demek
Affiliation:
Institute of Geography, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, Brno, Mendlovo nám. 1, Czechoslovakia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

“Thermokarst” as a process is the melting of ground ice and the consequent formation of depressions. Thermokarst landforms depend on the tectonic regime of a region, the ground ice content, and the degree to which the permafrost equilibrium is disturbed. Thermokarst forms are especially prominent in the lowlands of the subnival region with permafrost. The authors distinguish two modes of thermokarst development—permafrost back-wearing and down-wearing—based on their investigations in Siberia. The first mode is characteristic of a more dissected relief. In this case permafrost back-wearing takes place and the process is characterized by development of gullies, thermocirques, and parallel retreat of steep walls with ice veins, resulting in a lower lowland level. The second mode of thermokarst development is due to permafrost melting from above and is typical of a flat undissected relief, mainly that of watershed regions. characteristic forms are depressions with steep slopes and flat floors (alases). Thermokarst valleys develop through coalescence of alases. Thermokarst processes destroy the lowland relief of large areas and create characteristic forms resulting in a lower lowland level. Thus thermokarst represents a special type of lowland development in permafrost conditions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , September 1970 , pp. 103 - 120
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baulin, V. V., Belopukhova, E. B. Dubikov, G. I. and Shmelev, L. M. (1967). “Geokriologicheskiye usloviya Zapadno-Sibirskoy nizmennosti”. Nauka. Moscow.Google Scholar
Demek, J. (1967). Report on the study of cryogene phenomena in Jakutia (USSR). Sborník Československé Společnosti Zemeˇpisné (Praha) 72, 99–114.Google Scholar
Demek, J. (1968) Beschleunigung der geomorphologischen Prozesse durch die Wirkung des Menschen. Geologische Rundschau 58, 111–121.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Embleton, C., and King, C. A. M. (1968) “Glacial and Periglacial Geomorphology.” Arnold London.Google Scholar
Grigoryev, N. F. (1966). “Mnogoletnemerzlyye porody Primorskoy zony Jakutii.” Nauka Moscow.Google Scholar
Hamelin, L. E., and Cook, F. A. (1967) “Le Périglaciaire par l’Image” (Illustrated Glossary of Periglacial Phenomena). Les Presses de l’Université Laval, Quebec.Google Scholar
Hussey, K. M., and Michelson, R. W. (1966). Tundra relief features near Point Barrow, Alaska. Arctic 19, 162–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnson, G. H., Brown, R. J. E. (1964). Some observations on permafrost distribution at a lake in the Mackenzie Delta; N. W. T., Canada. Arctic 17, 163–175.Google Scholar
Kachurin, S. P. (1961). “Termokarst na territorii SSSR.” AN SSSR, Moscow.Google Scholar
Kononov, K. E. (1965). K. voprosu o rezhime vlazhnosti pochy alasov Centralnoj Jakutii. Sakha Gosudarstvennay universitetyt, Uledere (Jakutsk) 16, 57–75.Google Scholar
Kosov, B. F. (1959). Ovrazhnaya eroziya v zone tundry. Nauchnyye Doklady Vysshey Shkoly, Geologo-geograficheskiye nauky (Moscow) No. 1, pp. 123–129.Google Scholar
Mukhin, N. I. (1960). O znachenii polygonalnykh form relyefa v razvitii termokarsta v nizovyakh Indigirki. Materialy k osnovam ucheniya o merzlykh zonakh zemnoy kory 5, 45–55.Google Scholar
Muller, S. W. (1944). Common frontiers in geology and related science in the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. In “Science in Soviet Russia,” Jacques Cattell Press, Lancaster, Penn. 11–17.Google Scholar
Péwé, T.L. (1954). Effect of permafrost on cultivated fields, Fairbanks area, Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 989-F..Google Scholar
Péwé, T. L. (1966). “Permafrost and Its Effect on Life in the North.” Oregon State University Press, Corvallis.Google Scholar
Popov, A. I. (1953). Osobennosti litogeneza alluvialnykh ravnin v usloviyakh surovogo klimata. Izvestiya AN SSSR, seriya geograficheskaya (Moscow), No. 2, pp. 29–41.Google Scholar
Popov, A. I. (1966). Le thermokarst. Biuletyn Peryglacjalny 4, 319–330.Google Scholar
Protasyeva, I. V. (1965). Landshaftno-geokriologicheskoye deshifrovaniye v nizovyakh reki Jany. Sakha Gosudarstvennay universitetyt Uledere 16, 91–101.Google Scholar
Rex, R.W. (1961). Hydrodynamic analysis of circulation and orientation of lakes in northern Alaska. In “Geology of the Arctic,” Vol. 2 pp. 1021–1043. (Raasch, G. O., Ed.) University of Toronto Press, Toronto.Google Scholar
Shchukin, I. S. 1964 “Obshchaya Geomorfologiya, II.” Izdatelstvo MGU, Moscow.Google Scholar
Soloviev, P. A. (1962). Alasnyy relyef Centralnoj Jakutii i ego proiskhozhdeniye. In “Mnoholetnemerzlyye Porody i Soputstvuyuhchiye yim Yavleniya na territorii JASSR.” Izdatelstvo AN SSSR (Moscow), pp. 38–53.Google Scholar
Soloviev, P. A. (1963). Alasnyye doliny Yakutii. In “Uslociya i Osobennosti Razvitiya Merzlykh Tolshch v Sibiri i na Severovostoke,” pp. 80–90. Moscow.Google Scholar
Svensson, H. (1969). A type of circular lakes in northernmost Norway. Geografiska Annaler, 51, 1–12.Google Scholar
Tolstov, A.N. (1966). Rasshireniya alasnykh kotlovin termokarstovykh ozer na territorii Jano-Indigirskoj nizmennosti. Materialy VIII. V sesoyuznogo Mezhduvedomstvennogo Sovieshchaniya po Geokriologii (merzlotovedieniyu) Jakutskoje knizhnoye izdatelstov (Jakutsk) 6, 135–142.Google Scholar
Tomirdiaro, S. V. (1966). Ozerno-termokarstovaya pererabotka severnykh nizmennostey i yeye inzhenerno-geologicheskoye znacheniye. Materialy VIII. V sesoyuznogo Mezhduvedomstvennogo Sovieshchaniya po Geokriologii (merzlotovedeniyu). Jakutskoje Knizhnoye Izdatelstvo (Jakutsk) 7, 24–34.Google Scholar
Tomirdiaro, S. V. (1969). Inzhenernyye metody osvoyeniya ozernotermokarstovykh ravnin Krajnego Severa. Kolyma (Magadan), Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 17–20.Google Scholar
Tricart, J. (1967). “Le Modelé des Régions Périglaciaires.” SEDES, Paris.Google Scholar
Vebernikov, L. E. (1966). Nekotorye osobennosti formirovaniya termokarstovogo relyefa pravoberezhnoy terasy reki Jany. Materialy VIII. V sesoyuznogo Mezhduvedomstvennogo Sovieshchaniya po Geokriologii (Merzlotovedieniyu). Jakutskoje Knizhnoye Izdatelstvo (Jakutsk) 7, 35–42.Google Scholar
Walker, H.J., and Arnborg, L. (1963). Permafrost and ice-wedge effect on riverbank erosion. In “Proceedings of the Permafrost International Conference, 11–15 November 1963, Lafayette, Indiana,” pp. 164–171. National Academy Sciences-National Research Council, Publ. 1278, Washington, D.C. Google Scholar
Yefimov, A. I. (1964). Merzlotno-gidrogeologicheskiye osobennosti pribrezhnogo i ruslovogo uchastkov r. Leny v rayone goroda Jakutska. In “Geokriologicheskiye Usloviya Zapadnoy Sibiri, Jakutii I Čukotki.” Okhrana nedr., Moscow.Google Scholar