LATE CENOZOIC PERMAFROST HISTORY OF THE RUSSIAN ARCTIC

The history of permafrost over the last 1.5 million years has been tra ced back for both the sea shelf and the adjacent land of the Russian A rctic. Maps have been constructed for four extreme climatic stages: (a ) for the cool stage of the Middle Pleistocene, (b) for the warm stage of the Late Pleistocene beginning, (c) for the cool stage of the Late Pleistocene end, and (d) for the Holocene climatic optimum. The distr ibution pattern, temperature, and thickness of various types of permaf rost (subaerial, subglacial and submarine) have been mapped. The exerc ise allows one to identify the principal regularities of permafrost ev olution and to predict its further development. (C) 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.