Earth’s Cryosphere, 2017, Vol. XXI, No. 6, p. 65-72

FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONCEPTION OF SUBAQUAL CRYOLITHOGENESIS OF MARINE DEPOSITS OF GASBEARING STRUCTURES ON THE YAMAL PENINSULA

Yu.B. Badu

Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Geography,
1, Leninskie Gory, Moscow, 119991, Russia; yubadu@mail.ru

The paper describes the cryogenic strata developing pattern on the Yamal Peninsula, resulting from the system analysis of the cryogenic framework of gas-bearing structures, which differs significantly from the known theories on permafrost evolution. It has been established that aggradation of ice-rich permafrost is not infrequently governed by the migrating gas permeation and its throttling effect (gas expansion), associated with its cooling and freezing action. The identified types of subaqueous cryolithogenesis are grouped into a succession of changing sedimentary facies as part of depositional environments, and subsequent freezing of the marine sediments at temperatures below freezing point, as the sea water depth decreases grading from the underwater coastal slope to the tidal zone, and then to low and high laidas.

Ice segregation; gas accumulation, gas-bearing structure; subaqueous syncryolithogenesis; submarine, plicative and endogenous-diffusion types of cryolithogenesis