Earth’s Cryosphere, 2011, Vol. XV, No. 4, p. 56-59

PERIGLACIAL PHENOMENA IN THE ALTAI MOUNDS, MONGOLIA

E.A. Slagoda, V.P. Melnikov, Yu.N. Garkusha*, O.L. Opokina

Institute of Earth’s Cryosphere, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, PO box 1230, Tyumen, 625000, Russia; eslagoda@ikz.ru
* Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 17, Akad. Lavrentieva, Novosibirsk, 630090, Russia

Mound permafrost is common to the mountains of Altai, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and China. Natural mounds in terrains affected by seasonal and perennial cryogenesis are often hard to tell from manmade burial sites. Mounds in northwestern Mongolia have been found out to lie over ice-rich sediments that differ in color and structure and over standing blocks, a setting typical of ancient tombs. The culturally undisturbed rocks beneath the mounds have lost their natural colors and structures as a consequence of frost heaving and weathering. The high ice contents of cryogenically eroded bedrocks, as well as intense frost shattering and sorting of debris result from local flooding of the active layer under the mound. The periglacial processes appear to have acted for 3000 years after the burial mound had been put up.

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