On the Problem of the Regime and Evolution of Water Bodies in the Area of the Okhotsk-Kolyma Water Divide
The article discusses previously unexplored hydrological and hydrogeological manifestations of small-scale tectonics on a number of lakes and streams in the North-East of Russia. The research involves the results of the author’s own observations, analysis of cartographic and aerospace materials of different years as well as published and interrogation data. Regime and evolution of the investigated objects display significant (to several years) variability within short time intervals, manifested in intense fluctuations of water levels in lakes, including their complete draining, absorption of rivers flow, and a number of other effects. The most unusual of them are: 1) counter-directed underground and surface water flows at one of the lakes’ extremity; 2) an underground reservoir existence in low reaches of a stream. Most of the time, it drains the surface flow but occasionally it generates volleys of water many times exceeding the extreme floods on streams of comparable sizes. In high-water periods, it functions as a low-debit spring whose output oscillates daily under the influence of tidal force. Many of the studied objects are situated in localities of low-contrast relief without distinct features of tectonic activity. Undoubtedly, the presence of such features does not exclude the processes similar to the abovementioned, though in areas with intense and high-amplitude tectonic movements they are mostly obscure. Probably, in mountainous parts, including foothills, they are widespread. The results presented indicate the need for searching unconventional approaches to interpreting similar observations and using the maximum possible amount of available information. Practical importance of such studies is implied by the necessity to consider the possibility of local tectonic movements when designing industrial and civil objects. The leading inventory in this case should be the study of hydrological and hydrogeological peculiarities of regimes at the sites proposed and the retrospective analysis of cartographic and aerospace materials, examples of which are presented in this paper.