Earth’s Cryosphere, 2010, Vol. XIV, No. 4, p. 30-41

ORIGIN OF DEFORMATIONS IN HOLOCENE-QUATERNARY DEPOSITS WITH TABULAR GROUND ICE ON YUGORSKY PENINSULA

E.A. Slagoda, M.O. Leibman, O.L. Opokina

Earth Cryosphere Institute, SB RAS, 625000, Tyumen, P/O box 1230, Russia, eslagoda@ikz.ru

Perennially frozen Quaternary deposits with cracks, folds and tabular ground ice are exposed by modern thermocirques near Amderma settlement on Yugorsky peninsula. The spatial connection of cryogenic structure and deformations of frozen deposits covering tabular ground ice with palaeocryogenic phenomena: refrozen lake talik and filled in and frozen thermoerosion trough are under study. The sequence of palaeocryogenic events which had affected the morphology of ice layer and changed primary cryogenic structure of enclosing deposits was reconstructed. The studied deformations of the Late Quaternary deposits on Yugorsky peninsula and their cryogenic construction are explained by palaeocryogenic history of formation of an ancient thermodenudation piedmont plain under the impact of cryogenic slope, erosive and thermokarst processes.

Key words: Palaeocryogenic processes and phenomena, tabular ground ice, cryogenic structure, folded and ruptural deformations, frost heave, landsliding.

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