Russian Permafrost Scientists on the Roof of the World

This article presents an essay of the nature of the Tibetan Plateau, which is based on the author’s impressions of a scien-tific trip to the Northwest Institute of Ecology and Natural Resources of the People’s Republic of China in Lanzhou and an expedition to a High-altitude scientific research station in the Tibet-Qinghai Highlands. Here at an altitudes of more than 4500 meters, Chinese engineers constructed a real technical miracle of the 21st century — the Trans-Tibet Railway that spreads for more than a thousand kilometers and is surrounded by glaciers, permafrost, mountain steppes, and cold stony deserts. The essay focused on the most outstanding features of the Tibetan cryolithozone and landscapes, which are formed during intensive interaction of cryogenic and aeolian processes in cold and extra-arid conditions. The author intends that many features of modern Tibetan landscapes and relief formation environments are similar to the paleoclimatic conditions of the Ice Age of Eastern Siberia.

Keywords

Tibet, permafrost, highmountain deserts, deflation, yedoma, loess, paleogeography of Quarter, Lanzhou, Trans-Tibet Railway

Received

06.12.2018

Publication date

11.12.2018

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GOST	Galanin A. Russian Permafrost Scientists on the “Roof of the World” // Priroda – 2018. – Issue №11 C. 20-36 [Electronic resource]. URL: http://ras.jes.su/priroda/s207987840001523-4-1-en (circulation date: 05.11.2024). DOI: 10.31857/S0032874X0002321-2
MLA	Galanin, A. "Russian Permafrost Scientists on the “Roof of the World”." Priroda 11 (2018):20-36. DOI: 10.31857/S0032874X0002321-2
APA	Galanin A. (2018). Russian Permafrost Scientists on the “Roof of the World”. Priroda (11), pp.20-36 DOI: 10.31857/S0032874X0002321-2

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