Stages of Lithogenesis in Ice Zones · Three Types of Sea Ice Sedimentation and Two Vertical Levels of the Process

Abstract

The development of the notion of oceanic glacial process has been hampered by the lack of data on the processes of sediment incorporation, transportation and deposition by ice. Visual observations of ice with incorporated sedimentary material were the most important. The necessary data have been obtained only quite recently due to further progress in investigation technique and field explorations in inaccessible zones of glacial sedimentation, i.e. high latitudinal regions of the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. These investigations were supplemented by laboratory experiments. The first models have been put forward. So, processes of sedimentation in the areas covered with ice during most part of the year have become worth studied only quite recently. Understanding of these processes is based on the data obtained with the help of sputniks, research icebreakers and helicopters, drilling, study of fluxes of sedimentary material of all kinds (aerosols,cryosols andhydrosols), isotopic methods, etc.Nevertheless, this work is still far from being completed. There still remain a lot of “white spots”.