Some peculiarities of holocene processes in Western Siberia

Abstract

The authors deal with problems of the origin of peat in the territory of the West Siberian Lowland where Holocene processes are sufficiently widespread to be representative of this world-wide phenomenon. Here, for example, are found the most extensive peat bogs of the Earth. The authors deal with the stratigraphy of these peat bogs and the reconstruction of Holocene conditions in the West Siberian Lowland. The development of peat bogs has considerably modified landscape features since the retreat of the last glaciation, i.e., during the last 10,000 to 11,000 years. The peat bogs began to develop simultaneously in thousands of depressions after the ice cover had melted. Later they merged into vast peaty bog regions. Without any intervention by man the peat bogs will cover all of Western Siberia in the course of several thousands of years. The development of extensive peat bogs is due to an irregular advance of floods on Siberian rivers which leads to a rise in the water level on tributaries of great rivers and to a retardation of the discharge of flood waves In the conclusion the authors point to the problems of economic use of swampy regions and to questions of land reclamation that must be answered before economic use of the territory (mainly in connection with extensive oil and gas deposits in these regions) can be fully effective.