Abstract: The subject of the study is the cryostructures of Pleistocene sediments uncovered by a 30-m borehole in the Churapcha village and the distribution of stable oxygen and hydrogen isotopes in the schlieren ice and thin ice lenses. The research was located in the area of continuous permafrost distribution, the vertical thickness of which reaches 400–500 m here. The average annual temperature of rocks ranges from -4.6 to -6.2 °C, in river valleys the temperatures are increased to about –2 to –1°C. Permafrost sediments in the Churapcha area are characterized by relatively high iciness, from 26 to 47%. Ice is found in deposits as interlayers that form a layered (as well as lenticular and braided) cryostructure. During the fieldwork, frozen cores opened by a drilling hole at a depth of 30 meters were studied. Drilling was carried out using a large-sized drilling rig (PBU-2) based on a Kamaz truck. A core drilling pipe with a diameter of 146 mm was used. Sampling was carried out from the frozen core. The well-uncovered permafrost deposits, which have mainly dark brown and gray colors, especially bluish-gray shades characteristic of heavy loams and clays. The seasonally active layer has a sandy loam composition, and below, at depths from 1.5 to 6.0 m, the deposits are loamy. At depths of 6.0–20.0 m, alternating layers of loams and clays of different thickness are observed, and below there is a sharp change in the lithological composition to medium and fine sand (20.75–24.0 m), including a large number of layers of organic matter. The distribution of δ18O and δ2H values was examined in structured ice up to a depth of 17.7 meters. In the upper 12 m, the isotopic composition is significantly more negative: δ18O values vary from –29.44 to –34.35‰, while δ2H values range from –213.5 to –253.6‰. In the 12-17.7 m range, δ18O oscillates between –25.94 and –28‰, whereas δ2H ranges from –195.3 to –214.3‰. Analysis of data on the isotopic composition of structure ice in the yedoma deposits of Yakutia showed a close range of values with the ice of unit 1 from the borehole in Churapcha that we studied. The heavier isotopic composition of ice of unit 2 is probably explained by another source of water and the influence of isotopic fractionation during the interaction of clay particles with water. As for the contrast of the isotopic characteristics of unit 1 and unit 2, we note that such a ratio, when the isotopic composition in the upper unit is on average consistently 3-5‰ lower than in the lower unit, is quite rare in permafrost.
The water for the formation of segregation ice from the borehole could have been formed to a greater extent from melted winter snow and was less subject to evaporation. Contrasting values in the ice of the two studied units may indicate different water sources; for the ice in unit 1, the water source could have been, to a greater extent, winter precipitation (surface water formed from melted snow); the presence of a negative peak in the vertical distribution of isotopic values may indicate two-sided freezing (from above and below) and isotopic fractionation during freezing.
The deposits of unit 2 are represented by heavy loams, probably lacustrine. It can be assumed that the saturation of these deposits under these conditions occurred with lake water, which consisted of a mixture of precipitation from both winter and summer seasons and was characterized by higher values of the isotopic composition. Freezing of these loams could have begun already when the lake became shallow. In any case, for now the probable explanation for the heavier isotopic composition of unit 2 is isotopic fractionation in water during interaction with clay particles and a different water source than in unit 1.

Abstract: The object of the study are the cryogenic soils located within the Chara valley. We attributed soils in a post-pyrogenic sparse larch forest on the terrace of the Chara River, to the type of gleyzems (Gleysols), subtypes - permafrost cryogenically ferruginized cryoturbated and permafrost cryogenically ferruginized post-pyrogenic. The field diagnostics of these two soils is ambiguous, since the soil profiles contain some morphological features that make it possible to identify them as podburs (Entic Podzols): a bright red color of the BF horizon, a sandy loam texture, containing less than 19% of clay particles (< 10 µm). Field diagnostics, together with laboratory studies, indicate that the soils in the section on the stone run at the top of the Udokan Ridge belongs to peat-lithozem (Histic Leptosols). Chemical analyses have shown that the described soils are acidic with pH ranges from 4.9 to 5.4 and relatively slightly saline, TDS ranges from 8.1 to 18.9 mg/L. The carbonate alkalinity is also relatively low: 2.4–4.8 mmol(-)/100 g of soil. The sections are strongly differentiated by the content of organic carbon. Permafrost peat-lithozem contains from 9.3 to 37.8%, permafrost cryogenically ferruginized post-pyrogenic gleyzem is much less enriched in it, the content here does not exceed 6.8%, usually being around 0.9%.

Abstract: The object of the study is the isotope composition of three aufeis (icing) in the Viluy River basin. Two of the three tested icing were located in the wide valleys of the streams-tributaries of the Viluy River, one on the flat bottom of the thermosuffusion sinkholes. The areas of studied icings did not exceed 30 sq. m., their thickness ranges from 45 to 100 cm. Stratification is recorded in the icings. The co-isotope diagram δ2H-δ18O shows that icing ice was formed from spring water and generally is isotopically “lighter” compared to the water of Kysyl-Yurekh stream and Viluy River. The isotope composition of the icing ice varies in a very narrow range: a) for icing 1 δ18O values vary from –19.3 to –20.9‰, δ2H values vary from –156.5 to –162.9‰; b) for icing 2 δ18O values vary from –19.7 to –22.4‰, δ2H values vary from –153.2 to –173.1‰; c) for icing 3 δ18O values vary from –19.8 to –22.7‰, δ2H values vary from –162.9 to –181.3‰. The similarity of the isotope profiles of icing 2 on Viluy and icing IB93-5 on Baylot Island and isotope profiles of icing 3 on Viluy and icing F192-6 on Baylot Island was noted, however, the scale of isotopic variations for icings on Baylot Island are 5-6 times greater than that of Viluy icings.

Abstract: The subject of the study is the content of trace elements (heavy metals and metalloids) in the Late Pleistocene ice-wedge casts of three yedoma blocks of Northern Yakutia: Kular, Bison and Duvanny Yar. Yedoma deposits of Duvanny Yar are exposed on the right bank in the lower course of the Kolyma River, near the Duvanny riffle, in the Kolyma Lowland. It is drained by the northward flowing Kolyma River, the sixth largest river flowing into the Arctic Ocean. The lowland is bordered by the North Anyuy Range to the east, the Yukagir Plateau to the south, the Alazeya Plateau to the southwest and the Ulakhan-Sis Ridge to the northwest. The Late Pleistocene Bison yedoma complex is located on the right bank of the Kolyma River, in the mouth of the Lakeevskaya Channel 15 km below the Duvanny riffle. Yedoma near the Kular village in the foothills of the Kular range is located on the mild slope of southern aspect in the valley of the Burguaat creek in the form of an inclined slope extending over a slope of more than 1 km. The main reseacrh method is atomic absorption spectroscopy, performed in the V.V. Dokuchaev Soil Science Institute. Samples of ice wedges were sampled in the field in polyethylene bags, melted at a temperature not higher than 15 °C and poured into chemically inert plastic bottles. The main conclusions of the study are as follows: a) in the late Pleistocene ice-wedge casts of the Bison and Duvanny Yar sections, lithophile elements (Mn, Sr) are significantly distinguished in comparison with the Kular section; b) the content of Sr in the ice of the Bison section is below the world’s average for surface water; c) Mn and Fe, highly mobile in gley reducting medium, are represented in the ice of the Duvanny Yar and Bison sections in much larger quantities than in the Kular section; it can be connected with different redox conditions during the formation of ice wedges. Probably in Kular the conditions were oxidative (for a long time) or more alkaline than in other sections, and in Duvanny Yar and Bison – mostly gley reducing and acid.