REMOTE MAPPING OF THE DUNE RELIEF IN CENTRAL YAKUTIA

Based on remote mapping and field studies, a high variety of Quaternary aeolian relief and sediments has been established in Central Yakutia. Aeolian formations are found at all hypsometric levels and occupy at least 60 % of the region. Deflation-corrosion (ventifact plateaus, mushroom-shaped rock outcrops and pillars), deflation-accumulative (sand covers and dune massifs (ergs)) and accumulative (ice-reach-loess plateaus) types of aeolian relief are distinguished. The deflationary-accumulative forms of the dune relief are composed of hollow and cross-layered quartz sandy loams of the D’olkuminskaya Series, which formed from the end of the MIS 3 to the beginning of the Holocene (from 35 kyr to 10-12 kyr), as well as in the late Holocene. There are modern unvegetated dune massifs (tukulans) and Late Pleistocene ones, which are covered mainly by pine forests. Modern dune massifs are predominantly composed by small parabolic dunes, while ancient ones are represented by large U-shaped, spear-shaped and longitudinal dunes. The features of the aeolian relief are the orientation of elementary landforms in the southeast direction, the intersection of the river network, the frequent movement up the relief, and an increase in depth at higher hypsometric levels. The high activity of aeolian processes and the attenuation of fluvial activity during the Last Thermal Minimum and the Younger Dryas contributed to the destruction of low-order drainage net in vast territories, and led to the appearance of many drainless wind-blown depressions. In the Early Holocene, many of them, as a result of increased atmospheric precipitation, turned into lakes and bogs. The author concluded that the close interaction of aeolian, cryogenic, nival and fluvial processes during the Late Quaternary led to the appearance of some polygenetic facies - cryogenic-aeolian, niveo-aeolian, aeolian-fluvial, and aeolian-lacustrine. The structure and taxonomy of many of them remains poorly understood.

dunes, deflation, cryolithozone, central Yakutia, remote mapping, Late Pleistocen

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