CRYOGENIC MIGRATION OF CHEMICAL ELEMENTS AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE FOR PROSPECTING IN PERMAFROST AREAS

Abstract

Cryogenic superimposed haloes above buried mineral deposits are reliably identified by lithochemical, hydrochemical and biochemical sampling. The great practical importance of this phenomenon is not confined to geochemical exploration and prospecting in present-day permafrost areas: cryogenic landscapes also existed along the peripheries of the American and European glaciers in the fairly recent past, producing secondary cryogenic haloes. Traces of permafrost processes there are numerous (buried cryoturbation, earth dikes and the like). In view of the vigorous upward cryogenic migration in the paleopermafrost zone, we may expect that surface and deep versions of geochemical methods will be effective in identifying buried ore-placer features on the periphery of the Baltic, Ukrainian and Voronezh crystalline massifs.