Cambridge Scholars Publishing The Northern Pleistocene of Russia

This collection of papers devoted to the Ice Age of northern Russia provides illustrated descriptions of landforms and sediments revealing former ice sheets of the arctic shelf that inundated northern Russia. It shows that a peculiar Siberian type of inland glaciation is inferred from preserved Ice Age features. This type of glacial environment implies arrested landscape evolution in continental climates with fossil glacial ice surviving within the conservative permafrost. The contributions here delve into the problem of the size and age of the last glaciation intensely discussed in the international literature. This is of broad interest because its solution is paramount for global climatic models and the reconstruction of Circum-Arctic paleoenvironments. It is also essential for understanding natural conditions of early human migration into the Arctic. Another point of interest is the books discussion of the profound impact of reconstructed glaciers on the tectonic structure and distribution of petroleum reserves. About the Author Valery I. Astakhov is Professor of Sedimentary Geology at the Institute of Earth Sciences of St. Petersburg State University, Russia. He has also served as Adjunct Professor at a number of Norwegian universities, and as a field geologist in many arctic expeditions, including international projects. His main research interest is the recent geological history of northern Eurasia. His principal research achievements are the detection and documentation of a specific Siberian type of inland glaciation in perennially frozen terrains, as well as the Kara Sea centre of former glaciation, now universally accepted by the scientific community. He is the author of 160 research papers and several Russian textbooks.