Kriosfera Zemli, 2014, vol. XVIII, No. 3, pp. 32–43 http://www.izdatgeo.ru CRYOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE FIRST TERRACE IN BELY ISLAND, KARA SEA: PERMAFROST AND CLIMATE HISTORY (Part 3) E.A. Slagoda1,2, A.N. Kurchatova1,2, O.L. Opokina1,2, I.V. Tomberg3, T.V. Khodzher3, A.D. Firsova3, E.V. Rodionova3, K.A. Popov1, E.L. Nikulina1 1 Earth Cryosphere Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, P/O box 1230 Tyumen, 625000, Russia;
[email protected] 2Tyumen State Oil and Gas University, 56 Volodarskogo str., Tyumen, 625000, Russia 3Limnological Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 3 Ulan-Batorskaya str., Irkutsk, 664033, Russia The distribution of lithological and permafrost facies deposited on the first terrace of Bely Island in the Kara Sea record alternated freezing and thawing cycles. The cryostratigraphy of the terrace, with constraints from data on the taxonomic diversity and habitats of microphytes found in the sediments, allows detailed reconstructions of the permafrost and deposition history associated with Late Pleistocene-Holocene climate and sea level changes. Cryostratigraphy, lithology, сryofacies, microphyte, thermokarst, taberal deposits, sealevel, Kara Sea INTRODUCTION The deposition history of frozen coastal and shelf In the West Arctic, however, the late Quaternary facies and formation of thermokarst in the context of climate and sealevel correlations remain more contro- latest Cenozoic sealevel changes in the Arctic Kara versial (Fig. 1) being interfered with a warming effect Sea area has been much less studied than in the East from the Atlantic water penetrated into the Barents- Arctic shelf. Freezing of shelf sediments in most of the Kara region [Polyakova, 1997].