Industrial influence on glacial processes in mountains of circumpolar regions

V.I. Grebenets, D.B. Fedoseyev
1992 Annals of Glaciology  
Industrial activity in the Noril'sk mountains since the 1930s has changed the landscape and formed artificial banks, ridges and terraces. New water courses have been formed and snow has been removed to places where it has accumulated year by year. The ground temperature has increased by 0.3 to 0.5°C down to a depth of 30 to 50 m, melting has increased in the permafrost layer and artificial ground has become more unstable, leading to landslides and mudflows. Material in dumping sites has frozen
more » ... nd turned into rock glaciers, chemical pollutants have accumulated in snow and extremely high concentrations are observed in meltwater during spring. The gravitational instability of mountain and piedmont landscapes increases with human activities and the landscapes thus changed cause greater danger from slumps, mud flows and avalanches.
doi:10.1017/s0260305500005097 fatcat:t6vgjzxasfcqtey4zccrskdl3a