The History of Geocryological Study of the Coastal-Shelf Zone of the Laptev and East Siberian Seas in the 1950s–1980s

Abstract

The historical analysis of the studies carried out during the 1950s-1980s by the staff of the Yakutsk Permafrost Research Station of the Obruchev Permafrost Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences and since 1962 – organized on its basis by the Permafrost Institute of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences and aimed at studying the coastal-shelf zone of the Laptev Sea and the East Siberian Sea. The sources for the preparation of the article were the archival materials identified by the author from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Economics and the Archive of the Melnikov Permafrost Institute of SB RAS, as well as scientific literature data. The work carried out made it possible to show the significant activity of researchers in the study of subbottom permafrost. Its drivers were both purely cognitive interest and the needs of the industrial development of high latitudes. In the course of the surveys carried out, data were obtained characterizing the prevalence and thickness of subpermafrost, its temperature regime, composition and other properties.