Earth’s Cryosphere, 2016, Vol. XX, No. 1, p. 34-45

MULTISTAGE HOLOCENE MASSIVE GROUND ICE IN NORTHERN WEST SIBERIA

Yu.K. Vasil’chuk, N.A. Budantseva, A.C. Vasil’chuk, Ye.Ye. Podborny*, Ju.N. Chizhova

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Geography and Geology Departments,
1, Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991, Russia; vasilch_geo@mail.ru

*Hydroecological Research Center, 16A, Nalichnaya str., St. Petersburg, 199406, Russia; epodbornyy@yandex.ru

Four lenses of massive ground ice and three cryopegs have been discovered at different levels in Holocene deposits in the northeastern Yamal Peninsula near Sabetta Village. Lateral and vertical δ¹⁸O isotope patterns in multistage massive ice from the Sabetta and Gyda estuaries evidence of its heterogeneity and intrasedimental origin by segregation or by a combined intrusive-segregation mechanism. Cl^–/SO₄^2– ratios, spore-pollen spectra, and the presence of algae in the Sabettayakha massive ice have implications for the origin of its different types. Columnar brown ice formed by freezing of sand saturated with water of the Ob Gulf, monolith brown ice is a frozen lake talik, while ultra-fresh white ice originates from lake and stream waters. Massive ground ice occurs in pre-Quaternary consolidated deposits, as well as in Holocene and modern sediments.

Holocene, massive ice, permafrost, cryopegs, Yamal Peninsula, northern West Siberia