Earth’s Crysphere, 2011, Vol. XV, No. 4, p. 16-21

BURIED SNOW IN THE LENA-AMGA PLAIN

V.B. Spektor, V.V. Spektor, N.T. Bakulina*

Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 36, Merzlotnaya str., Yakutsk, 677010, Russia; vspektor@mail.ru
* State Committee of the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) on Geology and Mineral Resources, State Unitary Enterprise “Centrgeoanalitika”, 13, Kirova str., Yakutsk, 677000, Russia

Some new forms of buried stratified ice have been discovered in the Late Pleistocene section of the Lena-Amga Plain (Central Yakutia, Russia) in the course of core drilling at several watershed sites elevated to 220–250 m asl. The buried ice, which belongs to the traditionally distinguished ice complex, makes three separate layers of firn (snow recrystallized to difference degrees), at the depths 12.0 to 17.0, 23.3 to 24.5, and 33.6 to 39.0 m below the ground surface lying under wedge ice found in the uppermost section between 2.5 and 5.0 m. The firn layers are separated by syngenetically frozen sandy silt and silt.

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