Remote Study of Aufeis along the ‘Power of Siberia’ Gas Pipeline in the Aldan River Basin

Abstract

The ‘Power of Siberia’ gas pipeline route passes through the territories of South-West and South Yakutia, where the natural conditions are characterized by severe climatic, complex engineering geological and geocryological conditions. A variety of environmental conditions are mandatory for construction and operation in different areas with long-term soil and hazardous geocryological processes: debris flow formation, aufeis formation, soil heaving, thermokarst, thermosuffosion. Aufeis formation processes will be of particular importance during the construction of the pipeline. As a degree of their occurrence in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), it should be mentioned the Aldan upland. Aufeis occur almost in the majority of local stream valleys as a small areas of ice formations, basically confined to floodplain and riverbed. Aufeis areas had been identified in trace areas by the method of deciphering satellite images within the territory of the hydrogeological zones of the Lena-Amur interfluve. As a result of remote studies, territorial and quantitative distributions in hydrogeological zones have been identified. As a result of the monitoring results the areas of each aufeis are determined and their contours are decoded due to satellite images of recent years (2018-2020).