West Siberian Plain as a late glacial desert

The paper presents results of morphoscopic studies of quartz grains recovered from sands underlying surficial peat over the West Siberian Plain. The field materials were collected in the course of the Russian–American expedition in 1999–2001. The data obtained proved the existence of a vast area in West Siberia similar to cold deserts in appearance at the late glacial time (and probably even as early as the Last Glacial Maximum – 18–20 ka BP). The desert was confined to the arctic and temperate belts, the southernmost part of the plain being an area of loess accumulation.