O peryglacjalnej rzeźbie centralnego Tien-Szania

Abstract

In the course of the few months when I was visiting the Asiatic part of the Soviet Union for purposes of research, I had the opportunity to study the scientific investigations in geomorphology carried out by the Soviet Academy of Sciences, universities and pedagogical institutes. During my stay in the Kazakh Academy of Sciences and at the University of Alma-Ata, owing to the kind help I got from Professor E.M. Kalmynkin and Professor A.P. Gorbunov I was able to study the problems of periglacial relief of the Tien Shan. It is a pleasure to acknowledge my indebtedness for their aid and for the photographs from Prof. A.P. Gorbunov’s collection, which I have show in the present paper. Periglacial relief in the Tien Shan still holds a great many secrets, but a number of interesting works have been already published on the subject (8, 9, 10, 11, 12), bringing to light the remarkable forma and processes which are modelling the Tien Shan relief. The best conditions for the development of periglacial forms are on a level varying from 3000 do 4100 m a.s.l. The Tien Shan relief is markedly divided into belts and horizons, which is related to geological structure and various processes occurring in the particular horizons. At the lowest horizon, slope formation is under strong influence of outwash, landsliding and stone-falling, while the bottoms are modelled by the stonemuddy streams (svelowe potoki). Periglacial processes prevail it the middle horizon, while the upper one is glaciated. Not every periglacial process and form has been discussed in the paper. The author's attention has been mainly centred upon the processes which exert a strange and decisive influence upon the re-modelling of high-mountain relief - as well as upon the most outstanding structures in the Tien Shan relief. Particular stress has been laid upon the assymetry of slopes, the author taking into account also the opinions expressed on the subject by M. Klimaszewski (17) and H. Poser and T. Müller (21). The author has discussed also solifluction plains and terraces, solifluction streams, hydrolaccolites and peaty mounds and cryogenic ravines. There are also landslides in the permafrost zone. The author has tried to demonstrate the connection existing between the above-named structures and to grasp the role of landslides in the modelling of this part of the mountains.