Glaciation of Siberia and the problem of massive ice beddings

Abstract

As a result of many years of the author’s studies of glaciers and ground ices, a great amount of factual material has been collected for a purpose to analyze a possibility of burying the glaciers in the permafrost zone and to esti‑ mate a time of their stay in such а condition. According to the author’s opinion, the Siberian glaciers were mainly the valley ones; ice sheets were never formed, and any existence of buried glaciers could not be real in the geo‑ logical time scale. However, some researchers still believe that in the Quaternary ice sheets occurred in the North of Siberia, and, in addition, they consider the local massive ice beddings as relics of these sheets. No clear expla‑ nation of the similar origin of such ice structures exists at the present time, so development and variety of this ice could be easier explained by the permafrost genesis. Basing on results of observations carried out in all glacier regions of Siberia, the author concludes that glaciers cannot exist in the form of buried ice for a long time. This is unrealistic even in the North‑East of Siberia, where the absolute minimum temperature is −67.8 °C, and the mean annual air temperature drops below −17 °C. The characteristic feature of the Siberia continental climate is short, but hot summer. In such a situation, the coarse fragmental morainic material, covering glaciers by the layer up to 3 m thick, cannot preserve the underlying ice from melting because the heat penetrates down with the air, liquid precipitation, and the melt water. When glaciers reduce, the dead ice, buried under a moraine, may be preserved in the coldest areas of Siberia for only 100–150 years. Therefore, despite the resemblance of the scarps of the ice bodies having the permafrost or glacial origin, consideration of them as relics of ancient glaciers would be wrong.