DOI: 10.7256/2453-8922.2024.1.70079

Abstract: Aufeis is one of the most dangerous natural phenomena. The negative impact of aufeis is determined by the unexpected flooding of the territory and subsequent freezing of water, the formation of ice barriers, the icing of underground structures and communications (mines, tunnels, culverts, and sewer wells), as well as the icing of roads and railways, coastal hydraulic structures, etc. There are cases when explosions of aufeis mounds produce catastrophic disturbances within a few seconds. The aufeis that forms annually in the valley of the Buluus Creek is one of the most famous and studied aufeis of Central Yakutia. The aufeis was sampled from a vertical section. The aufeis is layered, and the thickness of the layers is 3-10 cm. In the upper part of the aufeis, the ice layers are thicker than in the lower. Sampling from the aufeis ice was carried out using a 5.1-cm-diameter steel crown driven by a Bosch electric drill. Measurements of the isotopic composition of oxygen and hydrogen in ice were performed using a Picarro L 2130-i laser isotope analyzer. The isotopic composition of the Buluus ice varies in a narrow range: δ18O values vary from −20.2 to −21.9‰, δ2H values vary from −159.5 to −173.7‰. Generally, the ice is isotopically slightly enriched compared to the surface water of the Ulakhan-Taryn creek, where the δ18O value is −22.18‰ and the δ2H value is −175.1%. Groundwater is isotopically close to the creek water; its isotope composition is also isotopically enriched compared to the ice of the aufeis, with δ18O values varying from −22.17 to −22.25‰ and δ2H values varying from −173.7 to −175.1‰.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-8922.2022.1.37931

Abstract: The object of the study is the isotope composition of three aufeis (icing) in the Viluy River basin. Two of the three tested icing were located in the wide valleys of the streams-tributaries of the Viluy River, one on the flat bottom of the thermosuffusion sinkholes. The areas of studied icings did not exceed 30 sq. m., their thickness ranges from 45 to 100 cm. Stratification is recorded in the icings. The co-isotope diagram δ2H-δ18O shows that icing ice was formed from spring water and generally is isotopically “lighter” compared to the water of Kysyl-Yurekh stream and Viluy River. The isotope composition of the icing ice varies in a very narrow range: a) for icing 1 δ18O values vary from –19.3 to –20.9‰, δ2H values vary from –156.5 to –162.9‰; b) for icing 2 δ18O values vary from –19.7 to –22.4‰, δ2H values vary from –153.2 to –173.1‰; c) for icing 3 δ18O values vary from –19.8 to –22.7‰, δ2H values vary from –162.9 to –181.3‰. The similarity of the isotope profiles of icing 2 on Viluy and icing IB93-5 on Baylot Island and isotope profiles of icing 3 on Viluy and icing F192-6 on Baylot Island was noted, however, the scale of isotopic variations for icings on Baylot Island are 5-6 times greater than that of Viluy icings.

DOI: 10.7256/2453-8922.2017.1.22232

Abstract: The subject of the study is the content of trace elements (heavy metals and metalloids) in the Late Pleistocene ice-wedge casts of three yedoma blocks of Northern Yakutia: Kular, Bison and Duvanny Yar. Yedoma deposits of Duvanny Yar are exposed on the right bank in the lower course of the Kolyma River, near the Duvanny riffle, in the Kolyma Lowland. It is drained by the northward flowing Kolyma River, the sixth largest river flowing into the Arctic Ocean. The lowland is bordered by the North Anyuy Range to the east, the Yukagir Plateau to the south, the Alazeya Plateau to the southwest and the Ulakhan-Sis Ridge to the northwest. The Late Pleistocene Bison yedoma complex is located on the right bank of the Kolyma River, in the mouth of the Lakeevskaya Channel 15 km below the Duvanny riffle. Yedoma near the Kular village in the foothills of the Kular range is located on the mild slope of southern aspect in the valley of the Burguaat creek in the form of an inclined slope extending over a slope of more than 1 km. The main reseacrh method is atomic absorption spectroscopy, performed in the V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute. Samples of ice wedges were sampled in the field in polyethylene bags, melted at a temperature not higher than 15 °C and poured into chemically inert plastic bottles. The main conclusions of the study are as follows: a) in the late Pleistocene ice-wedge casts of the Bison and Duvanny Yar sections, lithophile elements (Mn, Sr) are significantly distinguished in comparison with the Kular section; b) the content of Sr in the ice of the Bison section is below the world’s average for surface water; c) Mn and Fe, highly mobile in gley reducting medium, are represented in the ice of the Duvanny Yar and Bison sections in much larger quantities than in the Kular section; it can be connected with different redox conditions during the formation of ice wedges. Probably in Kular the conditions were oxidative (for a long time) or more alkaline than in other sections, and in Duvanny Yar and Bison – mostly gley reducing and acid.