An unusual phenomenon of nature - perennial frost

Internal waters are not only accumulations of liquid, but also solid moisture. Hard water forms a mountain, cover and underground glaciation. The area of the underground ice accumulation was called cryolithozone in 1955 by Shvetsov, a Soviet permafrost expert. This area has a more common name - permafrost.

Cryolithozone is the upper layer of the cortex. Rocks at this level are distinguished by lower temperatures. This layer includes permafrost, rocks, as well as non-freezing horizons of highly mineralized groundwater.

With a prolonged severe winter with a relatively low thickness of the cover, there is a significant loss of heat in the rocks. In this connection, there is a freezing to a considerable depth. As a result, solid masses of water are formed. In summer, the permafrost does not have time to thaw completely. The ground retains a negative temperature, thus, at a considerable depth and for hundreds and even thousands of years. The permafrost of Russia is formed even with the additional influence of huge reserves of cold. They accumulate in areas with a lower average annual temperature.

For a long time, rocks that are at low temperatures are "cemented" in some way with moisture. Permafrost includes underground ice, accumulations of moisture form wedges, lenses, veins, interlayers of ice. Permafrost may contain a different volume of ice. The indicator of "ice" can range from 1-3 to 90%. As a rule, there are ice in mountainous areas. At the same time, permafrost in the plains is characterized by high ice content.

Cryolithozone is a unique phenomenon. Long-term permafrost interested the explorers in the 17th century. At the beginning of the 18th century Tatishchev mentioned this phenomenon in his works, and Middendorf conducted the first research in the middle of the 19th century. The latter carried out the measurement of the temperature of the layer in several sections, established its power in the northern regions, and advanced the assumption of the origin and factors of a fairly wide distribution of the cryolithozone. From the second half of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, serious research began to be carried out together with the exploration work of mining engineers and geologists.

In Russia, cryolithozone is spread over an area of about eleven million square kilometers. This is about sixty-five percent of the entire territory of the state.

Long-term permafrost from the south is limited to the Kola Peninsula. From its central part, it stretches across the Eastern European Plain near the Arctic Circle. Then along the Urals there is a deviation to the south almost to the sixtieth degree of the northern latitude. Along the Ob, permafrost stretches to the mouth of the Northern Sosva, after which it passes along the Siberian Uvals (southern slopes) to the Yenisei in the Podkamennaya Tunguska area. At this point the border turns rather steeply to the south, runs along the Yenisei, then goes along the slopes of Altai, Tuva, and Western Sayan to the border with Kazakhstan.