Permafrost

critical to melt-water irrigation in the late summer months of the chronically drought-affected
region. Kabul City, capital of Afghanistan, has long had a dominant surface water source from
melting ground ice from the Paghman rock glacier in the Hindu Kush mountains northwest of
the capital. Assessments of the ice and water resources of the country are especially important
in the reconstruction and redevelopment of the country after two decades of war, environmental
problems and political uncertainty. The GLIMS (Global Land Ice Measurements from Space)
Regional Center for Southwest Asia (Afghanistan and Pakistan) was established under the
auspices of the US Geological Survey and National Aeronautics and Space Administration to
study ice resources because of their importance to the water budgets of the region and the world.
Long-term ice change detection in the country is facilitated by access to multiple data sets of
varying quality, resolution and precision of fabrication, including: (1) previously classified
large-scale Soviet and US DOD topographic maps derived from aerial photographs taken in the
1950-60s; (2) lost or still restricted or classified aerial photographs or digital elevation data; (3)
declassified Corona and Keyhole satellite photographs and images; (4) multi-temporal Landsat
MSS and TM, SPOT, and ASTER imagery; and (5) ground survey and geomorphologic
mapping. As far as is known, except for a few water temperatures of flowing springs and
photographs of rock-glacier ground ice, true observational or instrumental temperature data of
permafrost conditions in Afghanistan never were available anywhere in the country. On the
other hand, the well-known high seismicity of Afghanistan and the steep mountain slopes have
generated very large debris loads that in many cases nearly or completely cover glacier ice.
Rock glaciers are ubiquitous, some the result of talus mobilization through ground-ice
development, but most the result of downwasting and debris-accumulation over glacier ice.
Our assessments of these features are confounded by: (1) unsafe or impossible field-observation
conditions; (2) originally errant photogrammetric or cartographic interpretations, (3) ongoing
political restrictions denying access to key data sets; (4) limited local interpretive expertise; and,
(5) variable satellite sensory capabilities. Preliminary results indicate diminution of some
glaciers with probable decreased downstream meltwater discharges; and enigmatic ground-ice
conditions in need of fresh assessments. New digital elevation model capabilities and remote
sensing offer the only possible capability at present.
Keywords: Glaciers, , debris-covered ice, ground ice, irrigation melt water
Karst Processes and Phenomena in Frozen Carbonate
Rocks of the Middle Lena River Basin
V.B. Spektor, V.V. Spektor, V.A. Nikolaev, A.B. Kolesnikov
(Melnikov Permafrost Institute, SB RAS,677010, Russia, Yakutsk, Republic Sakha (Yakutia),
Merzlotnaya 36)
Abstract: A study of karst processes and phenomena in the basin of the Middle Lena River was
induced in connection with start up of railroad and pipeline construction in this area. Karst
processes have a considerable negative effect on linear engineering constructions, inducing
subsidence phenomena in basement ground, embankment flooding, and icing phenomena.
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