Submarine Permafrost of the Arctic Shelf
and Related Processes of Cryogenic Lithomorphogenesis

I. D. Danilov^†

Geological Faculty, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia

Received June 22, 1999

Abstract—A unique natural phenomenon—submarine permafrost of the Arctic Shelf—is assessed. In this
paper, the composition, structure, and bedding conditions of the submarine permafrost sediments, correspond-
ing deposits of the ice strata, and submarine cryogenic morphostructures, typical of the Arctic seas and marine
plains of northern Eurasia are considered. The formation of these morphostructures is proved to be synchronous
with the accumulation of the enclosing deposits. The possibility of the generation of underground ice accumu-
lations and submarine anticline morphostructures at the sites of decomposed gas-hydrate deposits, which have
undergone the transgressive–regressive cycles of the evolution of the Arctic seas during the Pleistocene and
Holocene, is proposed.

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