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Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island (russian: Большой Ляховский остров), or Great Lyakhovsky, is the largest of the
Lyakhovsky Islands
The Lyakhovsky Islands ( rus, Ляховские острова, r=Lyakhovskiye ostrova; sah, Ляхов арыылара) are the southernmost group of the New Siberian Islands in the Arctic seas of eastern Russia.
The islands are named in hono ...
belonging to the
New Siberian Islands
The New Siberian Islands ( rus, Новосиби́рские Oстрова, r=Novosibirskiye Ostrova; sah, Саҥа Сибиир Aрыылара, translit=Saña Sibiir Arıılara) are an archipelago in the Extreme North of Russia, to the north o ...
archipelago between the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea in northern
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...
.
It has an area of , and a maximum altitude of (
Emy Tas Emy or EMY may refer to:
People with the given name Emy
* Emy Coligado (b. 1971), an American actress
* Emy Gauffin (1928–1993), a Swedish orienteering competitor
*Emy Jackson (b. 1945), a Japanese singer
*Emy Kat (b. 1959), a visual artist
* Emy ...
).
The peninsula projecting towards the west of the island is the
Kigilyakh Peninsula
Kigilyakh Peninsula (russian: Полуостров Кигилях) is a peninsula in the New Siberian Islands, Sakha Republic, Russia. History
This geographic feature was named after the Kigilyakh stone pillars. In Soviet times on the Kigilyakh P ...
''(Poluostrov Kigilyakh)''.
Off Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island's southwestern cape lies a small islet called Ostrov Khopto-Terer.
The Lyakhovsky Islands are named in honour of
Ivan Lyakhov
Ivan Lyakhov (russian: Иван Ляхов), died around 1800, was a Russian merchant who explored large sections of the New Siberian Islands in the 18th century.
Expedition
Lyakhov began his explorations in the spring of 1770 on dogsleds in ord ...
, who explored them in 1773.
[
In 2020, a well preserved ice age ]cave bear
The cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'') is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum.
Both the word "cave" and the scientific name ' ...
was found on the island.
Geology
Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island consists of highly folded and faulted Precambrian
The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...
metamorphic rock
Metamorphic rocks arise from the transformation of existing rock to new types of rock in a process called metamorphism. The original rock (protolith) is subjected to temperatures greater than and, often, elevated pressure of or more, causin ...
s and turbidites
A turbidite is the geologic deposit of a turbidity current, which is a type of amalgamation of fluidal and sediment gravity flow responsible for distributing vast amounts of clastic sediment into the deep ocean.
Sequencing
Turbidites were ...
; Mesozoic
The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...
turbidites and igneous
Igneous rock (derived from the Latin word ''ignis'' meaning fire), or magmatic rock, is one of the three main rock types, the others being sedimentary and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed through the cooling and solidification of magma or ...
rocks; and Cenozoic
The Cenozoic ( ; ) is Earth's current geological era, representing the last 66million years of Earth's history. It is characterised by the dominance of mammals, birds and flowering plants, a cooling and drying climate, and the current configura ...
sediments
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand a ...
. Exposed in southeastern part of this island, the older Precambrian. Early Proterozoic
The Proterozoic () is a geological eon spanning the time interval from 2500 to 538.8million years ago. It is the most recent part of the Precambrian "supereon". It is also the longest eon of the Earth's geologic time scale, and it is subdivided ...
, metamorphic rocks consist of schist
Schist ( ) is a medium-grained metamorphic rock showing pronounced schistosity. This means that the rock is composed of mineral grains easily seen with a low-power hand lens, oriented in such a way that the rock is easily split into thin flakes o ...
s and amphibolites. Small exposures of Late Proterozoic schistose, quartzose sandstone
Sandstone is a clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate grains. Sandstones comprise about 20–25% of all sedimentary rocks.
Most sandstone is composed of quartz or feldspar (both silicates) ...
s and phyllitic, sericite
Sericite is the name given to very fine, ragged grains and aggregates of white (colourless) micas, typically made of muscovite, illite, or paragonite. Sericite is produced by the alteration of orthoclase or plagioclase feldspars in areas that hav ...
-quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon-oxygen tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical form ...
schist (turbidites) also occur in the southeastern part of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. The bulk of this island consists of Late Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a Geological period, geologic period and System (stratigraphy), stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The J ...
to Early Cretaceous
The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...
turbidites composed of interbedded fine-grained sandstones, thinly bedded siltstone
Siltstone, also known as aleurolite, is a clastic sedimentary rock that is composed mostly of silt. It is a form of mudrock with a low clay mineral content, which can be distinguished from shale by its lack of fissility.Blatt ''et al.'' 1980, p ...
s, and argillite
:''"Argillite" may also refer to Argillite, Kentucky.''
Argillite () is a fine-grained sedimentary rock composed predominantly of indurated clay particles. Argillaceous rocks are basically lithified muds and oozes. They contain variable amounts ...
s. The Precambrian and Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous rocks are intruded by Late Cretaceous granite
Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...
s and granodiorites.[Kos'ko, M.K., B.G. Lopatin, and V.G. Ganelin, 1990, Major geological features of the islands of the East Siberian and Chukchi Seas and the Northern Coast of Chukotka. '']Marine Geology
Marine geology or geological oceanography is the study of the history and structure of the ocean floor. It involves geophysical, geochemical, sedimentological and paleontological investigations of the ocean floor and coastal zone. Marine geolog ...
''. vol. 93, pp. 349–367.[Fujita, K., and D.B. Cook, 1990, ''The Arctic continental margin of eastern Siberia'', in A. Grantz, L. Johnson, and J. F. Sweeney, eds., pp. 289–304, The Arctic Ocean Region. Geology of North America, vol L, Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado.][Kyz'michev, A.B., A.V. Soloviev, V.E. Gonikberg, M.N. Shapiro, and O.V. Zamzhitskii, 2006, ''Mesozoic Syncollision Siliciclastic Sediments of the Bol'shoi Lyakhov Island (New Siberian Islands).'' Stratigraphy and Geological Correlation. vol. 14, no. 1, pp. 30–48.]
A blanket of unconsolidated Cenozoic sediment
Sediment is a naturally occurring material that is broken down by processes of weathering and erosion, and is subsequently transported by the action of wind, water, or ice or by the force of gravity acting on the particles. For example, sand an ...
s blankets most of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. These sediments include Paleocene
The Paleocene, ( ) or Palaeocene, is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 66 to 56 mya (unit), million years ago (mya). It is the first epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), E ...
to Eocene
The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene' ...
colluvial
Colluvium (also colluvial material or colluvial soil) is a general name for loose, unconsolidated sediments that have been deposited at the base of hillslopes by either rainwash, sheetwash, slow continuous downslope creep, or a variable combinati ...
, alluvial
Alluvium (from Latin ''alluvius'', from ''alluere'' 'to wash against') is loose clay, silt, sand, or gravel that has been deposited by running water in a stream bed, on a floodplain, in an alluvial fan or beach, or in similar settings. Alluv ...
, and deltaic gravel
Gravel is a loose aggregation of rock fragments. Gravel occurs naturally throughout the world as a result of sedimentary and erosive geologic processes; it is also produced in large quantities commercially as crushed stone.
Gravel is classifi ...
s, sand
Sand is a granular material composed of finely divided mineral particles. Sand has various compositions but is defined by its grain size. Sand grains are smaller than gravel and coarser than silt. Sand can also refer to a textural class of s ...
s, clay
Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4).
Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay par ...
s, and coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen.
Coal is formed when dea ...
s and Oligocene
The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...
to Miocene
The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...
alluvial, lacustrine, deltaic, and nearshore marine sands and clays that contain beds and lenses of gravel. Overlying these sediments are Pliocene
The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.333 million to 2.58[Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...](_blank)
colluvial, alluvial, and nearshore marine sands, silts, and clays that contain occasional gravel layers. The nearshore marine sediments contain the shells of marine mollusks
Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is esti ...
and pieces of lignitized wood. Thick permafrost
Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...
characterized by massive ice wedges has developed in these sediments. Contrary to the interpretations of Baron von Toll[von Toll, Baron E., 1895, Wissenschaftliche Resultate der Von der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften sur Erforschung des Janalandes und der Neusibirischen Inseln in den Jahren 1885 und 1886 Ausgesandten expedition. cientific Results of the Imperial Academy of Sciences of the Investigation of Janaland and the New Siberian Islands from the Expeditions Launched in 1885 and 1886Abtheilung III: Die fossilen Eislager und ihre Beziehungen su den Mammuthleichen. Memoires de L'Academie imperials des Sciences de St. Petersbouro, VII Serie, Tome XLII, No. 13, Commissionnaires de I'Academie Imperiale des sciences, St. Peterabourg, Russia.] and earlier geologists, glacial tills and related sediments are completely absent within Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island.[Kos'ko, M.K., and G.V. Trufanov, 2002]
Middle Cretaceous to Eopleistocene Sequences on the New Siberian Islands: an approach to interpret offshore seismic.
''Marine and Petroleum Geology
''Marine and Petroleum Geology'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal covering marine and petroleum geology. It was established in 1984 and is published by Elsevier. The editor-in-chief is Massimo Zecchin ( Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e d ...
''. vol. 19, no. 7, pp. 901–919.
In Soviet times
The history of Soviet Russia and the Soviet Union (USSR) reflects a period of change for both Russia and the world. Though the terms "Soviet Russia" and "Soviet Union" often are synonymous in everyday speech (either acknowledging the dominance ...
on the Kigilyakh Peninsula Vladimir Voronin
Vladimir Voronin (; born 25 May 1941) is a Soviet and Moldovan politician. He was the third president of Moldova from 2001 until 2009 and has been the First Secretary of the Party of Communists of the Republic of Moldova (PCRM) since 1994. H ...
, then in charge of the Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Polar Station, was shown a large standing rock which had been heavily eroded and which gave name to the peninsula. The word Kigilyakh
Kigilyakh or kisiliyakh ( rus, кигиляхи; sah, киһилээх, meaning "stone person") are tall, pillar-like natural rock formations looking like tall monoliths standing more or less isolated. Usually they are composed of granite or ...
means "stone man" in the Yakut language
Yakut , also known as Yakutian, Sakha, Saqa or Saxa ( sah, саха тыла), is a Turkic language spoken by around 450,000 native speakers, primarily the ethnic Yakuts and one of the official languages of Sakha (Yakutia), a federal republic ...
.
Quaternary geology
The southern sea cliffs of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, which were first studied by Baron von Toll,[ expose a complex sequence of ]fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
iferous Late and Middle Pleistocene floodplain, eolian, lake, and solifluction
Solifluction is a collective name for gradual processes in which a mass moves down a slope ("mass wasting") related to freeze-thaw activity. This is the standard modern meaning of solifluction, which differs from the original meaning given to it ...
sediments cemented by permafrost. In the 1990s and 2000s,
a Russian-German multidisciplinary team, which included the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research
The Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research (German: ''Alfred-Wegener-Institut, Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung'') is located in Bremerhaven, Germany, and a member of the Helmholtz Association ...
and Permafrost Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, studied the cryolithology, geochronology
Geochronology is the science of determining the age of rocks, fossils, and sediments using signatures inherent in the rocks themselves. Absolute geochronology can be accomplished through radioactive isotopes, whereas relative geochronology is ...
, ground ice geochemistry
Geochemistry is the science that uses the tools and principles of chemistry to explain the mechanisms behind major geological systems such as the Earth's crust and its oceans. The realm of geochemistry extends beyond the Earth, encompassing the e ...
, paleobotany
Paleobotany, which is also spelled as palaeobotany, is the branch of botany dealing with the recovery and identification of plant remains from geological contexts, and their use for the biological reconstruction of past environments (paleogeogr ...
, paleontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
, sedimentology
Sedimentology encompasses the study of modern sediments such as sand, silt, and clay, and the processes that result in their formation (erosion and weathering), transport, deposition and diagenesis. Sedimentologists apply their understanding of mo ...
, and stratigraphy
Stratigraphy is a branch of geology concerned with the study of rock (geology), rock layers (Stratum, strata) and layering (stratification). It is primarily used in the study of sedimentary rock, sedimentary and layered volcanic rocks.
Stratigrap ...
of these sediments. The age of these sediments were studied in great detail using radiocarbon
Carbon-14, C-14, or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic materials is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and coll ...
dating of bones, ivory, and plant remains; optically stimulated luminescence dating
Luminescence dating refers to a group of methods of determining how long ago mineral grains were last exposed to sunlight or sufficient heating. It is useful to geologists and archaeologists who want to know when such an event occurred. It uses var ...
of bone-bearing sediments; and uranium-thorium dating of associated peat.[Andreev, A.A., G. Grosse, L. Schirrmeister, S.A. Kuzmina, E. Y. Novenko, A.A. Bobrov, P.E. Tarasov, B.P. Ilyashuk, T.V. Kuznetsova, M. Krbetschek, H. Meyer, and V.V. Kunitsky, 2004, ]
Late Saalian and Eemian palaeoenvironmental history of the Bol’shoy Lyakhovsky Island (Laptev Sea region, Arctic Siberia)
'', 3.41 MB PDF file, Boreas. vol. 33, pp. 319–348.[Andreev A.A., G. Grosse, L. Schirrmeister, T.V. Kuznetsova, S.A. Kuzmina, A.A. Bobrov, P.E. Tarasov, E.Y. Novenko, H. Meyer, A.Y. Derevyagin, F. Kienast, A. Bryantseva, and V.V. Kunitsky (2009) ''Weichselian and Holocene palaeoenvironmental history of the Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island, New Siberian Archipelago, Arctic Siberia.'' Boreas. 38:(1)72-110.][Andreev, A.A., L. Schirrmeister, P.E. Tarasov, A. Ganopolski, V. Brovkin, C. Siegert, S. Wetterich, and H.-W. Hubberten (2011) ''Vegetation and climate history in the Laptev Sea region (Arctic Siberia) during Late Quaternary inferred from pollen records.'' Quaternary Science Reviews 30 (2011) 30:2182–2199.][Schirrmeister, L., 2002, ''230Th/U Dating of Frozen Peat, Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island (Northern Siberia)''. Quaternary Research, vol. 57, pp. 253–258.][Meyer, H., A. Dereviagin, C. Siegert, L. Schirrmeister and H.-W. Hubberten (2002). Palaeoclimate Reconstruction on Big Lyakhovsky Island, North Siberia—Hydrogen and Oxygen Isotopes in Ice Wedges. '']Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
''Permafrost and Periglacial Processes'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering research on permafrost and periglacial geomorphology. It covers the subject from various points of views including engineering, hydrology, process ...
''. vol. 13, pp. 91–105.
The oldest sediments exposed in the southern sea cliffs of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island consist of a layer of rocky, yellowish to greenish colored sediment. This layer is a thick Paleogene
The Paleogene ( ; British English, also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene; informally Lower Tertiary or Early Tertiary) is a geologic period, geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period million yea ...
weathering crust (paleosol
In the geosciences, paleosol (''palaeosol'' in Great Britain and Australia) is an ancient soil that formed in the past. The precise definition of the term in geology and paleontology is slightly different from its use in soil science.
In geolo ...
) that has developed within Permian sandstone. This paleosol has been largely modified by periglacial
Periglaciation (adjective: "periglacial", also referring to places at the edges of glacial areas) describes geomorphic processes that result from seasonal thawing of snow in areas of permafrost, the runoff from which refreezes in ice wedges and o ...
processes and development of ice wedge
An ice wedge is a crack in the ground formed by a narrow or thin piece of ice that measures up to 3–4 meters in length at ground level and extends downwards into the ground up to several meters. During the winter months, the water in the gr ...
s periodically during the Pleistocene. These deeply weathered sediments are unfossiliferous and characterized by the presence of weathering products like kaolinite
Kaolinite ( ) is a clay mineral, with the chemical composition Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4. It is an important industrial mineral. It is a layered silicate mineral, with one tetrahedral sheet of silica () linked through oxygen atoms to one octahedral ...
and montmorillonite
Montmorillonite is a very soft phyllosilicate group of minerals that form when they precipitate from water solution as microscopic crystals, known as clay. It is named after Montmorillon in France. Montmorillonite, a member of the smectite gro ...
. Saalian
The Saale glaciation or Saale Glaciation, sometimes referred to as the Saalian glaciation, Saale cold period (german: Saale-Kaltzeit), Saale complex (''Saale-Komplex'') or Saale glacial stage (''Saale-Glazial'', colloquially also the ''Saale-Eiszei ...
sediments uncomfortably overlie this paleosol.[
The oldest known Pleistocene sediments exposed in the southern sea cliffs of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island consist of Saalian sediments, which accumulated between 200,000 and 120,000 years ago. The lower part of these sediments consist of ice-rich, silty and silty-sandy sediments that accumulated as a Saalian ice complex between 200,000 and 170,000 years ago. They contain pebbles, peat inclusions, and peat horizons. The presence of ice belts, reticulated ice interlayers, and wide, round-shouldered ice wedges indicate that permafrost formed in these sediments as they accumulated. The lower part of this unit contains the pollen of sparse grass-sedge vegetation, which reflects a ]stadial
Stadials and interstadials are phases dividing the Quaternary period, or the last 2.6 million years. Stadials are periods of colder climate while interstadials are periods of warmer climate.
Each Quaternary climate phase is associated with a Ma ...
environment. The upper part of this ice-rich unit contains pollen associated with dense grass-dominated tundra, which is indicative of interstadial
Stadials and interstadials are phases dividing the Quaternary period, or the last 2.6 million years. Stadials are periods of colder climate while interstadials are periods of warmer climate.
Each Quaternary climate phase is associated with a Ma ...
environments. The upper part of the Saalian sediments, which lie uncomfortably on the eroded surface of the lower Saalian ice complex deposits, consists of well-sorted fine-grained sand that contains pollen characteristic of sparse grass-sedge dominated interstadial vegetation and less ground ice. These loess
Loess (, ; from german: Löss ) is a clastic, predominantly silt-sized sediment that is formed by the accumulation of wind-blown dust. Ten percent of Earth's land area is covered by loess or similar deposits.
Loess is a periglacial or aeolian ...
-like sediments accumulated within floodplains and lakes. As they accumulated between 170,000 and 120,000 years ago, ice wedge polygons formed in these sediments as the result of extremely cold and dry conditions.[
Elsewhere along the coast of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, the sea cliffs expose pre- Eemian floodplain and lake sediments at their base. Eemian lake sediments fill depressions, i.e. ice wedge casts and thermokarst lakes, which developed by the surficial thawing during Eemian ]interglacial
An interglacial period (or alternatively interglacial, interglaciation) is a geological interval of warmer global average temperature lasting thousands of years that separates consecutive glacial periods within an ice age. The current Holocene in ...
climates of Saalian ice-wedges and other permafrost. In some locations, the Eemian lake deposits are thicker and laterally continuous enough to form a complete blanket overlying older sediments. The Eemian sediments contain fossils indicative of an interglacial environment.[
At many localities along the sea cliffs, typically over 10 meters of Early ]Weichselian
The Weichselian glaciation was the last glacial period and its associated glaciation in northern parts of Europe. In the Alpine region it corresponds to the Würm glaciation. It was characterized by a large ice sheet (the Fenno-Scandian ice sheet) ...
lacustrine and loess-like floodplain deposits overlie the Eemian and pre-Eemian sediments. These sediments consist of fine-grained, well-sorted sands with rare grass and sedge pollen. They contain ice wedge polygon systems that formed during the Early Weichselian stadial, about 100,000 to 50,000 years ago, as the result of extremely cold and dry conditions.[
Typically, 15 to 20 meters of Middle Weichselian ice complex deposits, which consist largely of aeolian sediments that accumulated 50,000 to 28,000 years ago, overlie the Early Weichselian sediments. These sediments contain pollen typical of the mammoth ]tundra
In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless moun ...
-steppe
In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes.
Steppe biomes may include:
* the montane grasslands and shrublands biome
* the temperate grasslands, ...
environments and large ice wedge polygon systems. These sediments accumulated within a swampy, poorly drained habitat, which existed under an extremely cold continental climate. A zone of peaty deposits within this ice complex accumulated during a Middle Weichselian interstadial about 40,000 to 30,000 years ago. The Middle Weichselian deposits underlie the upland surfaces of this part of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island.[
Within the southern sea cliffs of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, Late Weichselian sediments of the Last Glacial Maximum have not been found. The Ice Complex deposits associated with this period of time appear have been eroded and covered by Holocene deposits.][
Where thermokarst depressions have formed by melting of the permafrost, they are filled by ]Holocene
The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...
solifluction and lake sediments. These depressions formed as the result of the thawing of ice wedges and other permafrost during the Late Pleistocene-Holocene transition about 12,000 to 10,000 years ago. Lacustrine sediments filling these depressions contain a record of the Allerød warming, Younger Dryas
The Younger Dryas (c. 12,900 to 11,700 years BP) was a return to glacial conditions which temporarily reversed the gradual climatic warming after the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, c. 27,000 to 20,000 years BP). The Younger Dryas was the last stage ...
cooling, and other climatic events. Holocene fluvial
In geography and geology, fluvial processes are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by them. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluviog ...
and solifluction deposits underlie valleys of streams cut into underlying Pleistocene sediments. Solifluction deposits, which were created by melting of the underlying permafrost, veneer the surface of the uplands. New ice wedge polygon systems later formed in these sediments during the Late Holocene as result of pronounced climatic cooling, which only recently has reversed in the last couple of hundred years.[
Because of the formation of permafrost in these sediments and their depositional environments, prehistoric bone, shell, and plant material are well preserved and abundant. As noted above, later researchers found that the bone- and wood-bearing sediments described by Baron von Toll][ consist of both glacial, Saalian and Weichselian, and interglacial, Eemian and Holocene, sediments. For example, Baron von Toll's][ alder tree was found in Eemian sediments, which are about 114 to 130 thousand years old. The vertebrate fossils occur in sediments that range in age from 114,000 to less than 8,000 BP.][Romanovsky, N.N., 1958, ''New data about the construction of Quaternary deposits on Bol'shoy Lyakhovsky Island (Novosibirsky Islands)''. Science College Report, Geological-Geographical Serie no. 2, pp. 243–248. (in Russian)]
Baron Eduard von Toll
Eduard Gustav Freiherr von Toll (russian: Эдуа́рд Васи́льевич Толль, translit=Eduárd Vasíl'evič Toll'; 1902), better known in Russia as Eduard Vasilyevich Toll and often referred to as Baron von Toll, was a Russian ge ...
[ was among the first to report in detail about the abundance of Pleistocene fossils found within Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. Under a peat composed of water mosses covering what he described as "perpetual ice", now known to be permafrost, Baron von Toll found fragments of willow and the bones of post-]Neogene
The Neogene ( ), informally Upper Tertiary or Late Tertiary, is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period Mya. ...
mammals, like the shoulder-bone of a saber-toothed tiger
''Smilodon'' is a genus of the extinct machairodont subfamily of the felids. It is one of the most famous prehistoric mammals and the best known saber-toothed cat. Although commonly known as the saber-toothed tiger, it was not closely related ...
. He also reported having found in a frozen, sandy clay layer and lying on its side, a complete tree of ''Alnus fruticosa'' in length, including roots, with leaves and cones adhering. Unfortunately, his reports have been frequently either misrepresented or badly garbled by popular accounts of his findings. For example, various authors, i.e. Dr. Digby[Digby, B., 1926, ''The Mammoth and Mammoth-Hunting in North-East Siberia.'' D. Appleton and Company: New York, 224 pp.] and Dr. Kropotkin[Kropotkin, P., 1900, ''Review: Baron Toll on New Siberia and the Circumpolar Tertiary Flora.'' The Geographical Journal. vol. 16, no. 1, pp. 95–98.] misreport this tree as being high. Other publications, i.e. ''Fingerprints of the Gods''Hancock Hancock may refer to:
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** Hancock (CDP), New Hampshir ...
, G., 1995, ''Fingerprints of the Gods.'' William Heinemann, London and ''Earth's Shifting Crust''[ Hapgood, C.H., 1970, ''Earth's Shifting Crust: A Key to Some Basic Problems of Earth Science''. Chilton Book Company, Philadelphia.] not only incorrectly state that this alder tree is high, but also they also repeat fictional claims from unreliable sources that this tree was either a "fruit tree" or "plum tree" and had "green leaves"and green fruit" still attached. Lacking modern radiocarbon dating techniques, Baron von Toll[ assigned this tree and other fossils to single "]mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...
period". As discussed above, more recent geologic research and radiometric dating of these fossils and the sediment containing them has found that they are from different layers of Middle to Late Pleistocene glacial and interglacial sediments.
Climate
The Cape Shalaurova meteorological station, which lies on the southeast coast of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, at 73° 11' N 143° 56' E provides climatic data for this island. The mean precipitation is 184 mm/year as calculated for a 7-year period between April 1994 and September 2000 as calculated from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. The heaviest precipitation, about two-thirds of the yearly total, occurs between June and September. As calculated from the same data for the same period of time, the mean temperature at Cape Shalaurova is . January is the coldest month with a mean temperature of and August is the warmest month with a mean temperature of . Mean daily temperatures range as low as and as high as .[
]
Vegetation
The vegetation of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island is a mixture of rush/grass, forb, cryptogam tundra, cryptogam herb barren, and sedge/grass,moss wetland. The rush/grass, forb, cryptogam tundra covers the bulk of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. It consists mostly of very low-growing grasses, rushes, forbs, mosses, lichens, and liverworts. These plants typically cover about 40–80 percent of the surface of the ground. The soils are typically moist, fine-grained, and often hummocky. The cryptogam herb barren consists of dry to wet barren landscapes with scattered, herbs, lichens, mosses, and liverworts. Sedges, dwarf shrubs, and peaty mires are normally absent. These plants form a sparse (2–40%) and low-growing plant cover that often occurs as dark streaks on the otherwise barren lands, composed largely of bryophytes and cryptogamic crusts. Sedge/grass,moss wetlands, which occur on the northwest and southeast ends of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island, consist of wetland complexes dominated by sedges, grasses, and mosses. These wetlands occupy low, perennially wet parts of the landscape.[CAVM Team, 2003]
Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map
Scale 1:7,500,000. Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Map No. 1. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska.
See also
* List of islands of Russia
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
References
External links
*
*Anisimov, M.A., and V.E. Tumskoy, 2002
Environmental History of the Novosibirskie Islands for the last 12 ka.
32nd International Arctic Workshop, Program and Abstracts 2002. Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado at Boulder, pp 23–25.
*anonymous, nda
''New Siberian Islands.''
aerial photographs of New Siberian Islands. Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
*anonymous, ndb
''Bol'shoy Lyahkovskiy.''
aerial photograph of Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island. Internet Archive Wayback Machine.
*Babinski, E.T., nd
examination of reports of a fossil plum tree being found in Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island of the New Siberian Islands.
*Espinoza, E.O., and M.-J. Mann, 1993
Journal for the American Institute for Conservation. vol. 32, no. 3, Article 3, pp. 241–248.
*Kuznetsova, T.V., L.D. Sulerzhitsky, Ch. Siegert, 2001, New data on the "Mammoth" fauna of the Laptev Shelf Land (East Siberian Arctic), The World of Elephants – International Congress, Rome 2001. Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Centro di Studio per il Quaternario e l'Evoluzione Ambientale, Università di Roma, Roma, Italy.
*Schirrmeister, L., H.-W. Hubberten, V. Rachold, and V.G. Grosse, 2005
''Lost world – Late Quaternary environment of periglacial Arctic shelves and coastal lowlands in NE-Siberia.''
2nd International Alfred Wegener Symposium Bremerhaven, October, 30 – November 2, 2005.
{{East Siberian Sea Islands
Prehistory of the Arctic
New Siberian Islands
Lyakhovsky Islands
Islands of the Sakha Republic