The review of karst on the Taimyr Peninsula (Russian Arctic) according to remote sensing data.

D.V. Dobrinin¹, A.A. Semikolennykh²

¹ Institute of Soil Science of Moscow Lomonosov's University
and Russian Academy of Science
² Russian Geographical Society, Russian Academy of Science
dvd@soil.msu.ru

The Taimyr Peninsula consists of various structures in terms of its geological & landscape conditions. The south part (Putorana Plateau) has been presented as upland on the ancient lava where forest-tundra had grown. Within its central area (from Southwest towards Northeast) the Byrrangae Mountains have been formed owing to the Proterozoic era metamorphous & Paleozoic sedimentary rocks. Some dryad tundra may occur in the foothills as well as stone mountain deserts and thin forestry per river plains partly. The northern part of the Peninsula presents ancient sea accumulative plain together with the consequences of fluvioglacial & glacial processes. The limestone rocks may be seen within the central Peninsula part amongst some species, which are prone to any karst processive effects.

The conditions for karst development have been quite emerged within the central part of the Taimyr Peninsula, although some karst forms of the Byrrangae Mountains have been obliterated due to glacial abrasion processes, including those which occurred within the last millenium, whilst the Arctic climate has rendered active modern karst process development as impossible.

The data on the Taimyr Peninsula are irregular. The first notion of karst forms was referred to K. Middendorf's (geographer) travel of 1860. Some descriptive materials about residual karst cliffs and dry valleys were gathered by Tsykin (geologist from Krasnoyarsk). In the late 90's the Taimyr geological crew performed cartographic works with exact limestone distribution borders. The systematic research of the karst & caves areas has not been carried out, since this territory is not easily accessible.

With usage of remote methods we have tried to clarify the reasons of inherited karst systems within landscape as per its indirect effect on soil & vegetation cover.