Earth’s Cryosphere, 2021, vol. XXV, No. 1, pp. 3–30

LATE QUATERNARY SAND COVERS OF CENTRAL YAKUTIA (EASTERN SIBERIA): STRUCTURE, FACIES COMPOSITION AND PALEOENVIRONMENT SIGNIFICANCE

A.A. Galanin

Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences,
Merzlotnaya str. 36, Yakutsk, 677010, Russia; [nospam]agalanin@gmail.com[/nospam]

An additional comprehensive study of the Peschanaya Gora (Sand Hill) outcrop and other sections of aeolian coversands in Central Yakutia has revealed that, together with loess-ice (Yedoma) covers, they were two related granulometric and mineralogical derivatives which had formed as a result of aeolian processing of Quaternary alluvium during the second half of the Late Neopleistocene. Episodes of desertifi cation took place 22.0–14.0, 12.8–11.8, and 0.6–0.1 ka BP. A decrease in aeolian activity and consolidation of dune massifs by a soil-vegetative cover took place in the intervals of 14.0–13.0 and 10.0–0.6 ka BP. The largest episode of desertification took place during the last global thermic minimum (MIS-2) and led to a sharp decline in the mammoth biome, the disappearance of the wooly mammoth and rhinoceros in Central Yakutia.

Key words: aeolian formation, D’olkuminskaya Series, cryogenic-aeolian, niveo-aeolian lamination, desertification, Late Pleistocene, Holocene, Bølling, Allerød, Younger Dryas, Eastern Siberia