Minor Ice Age as one of the climatic fluctuations in the Golocene and its consequence in Western Siberia
The epochs of the freezing periods of the mainland separated by the warm ones have been repeatedly observed in the history of the Earth. As the result of it, there occurred a necessity to establish the natural trend of future climate changes and nature on the whole, which should be obtained by means of the paleoclimatic and paleoland-scape reconstructions. The work considers the questions of the climate changes during the Minor Ice Age (1550-1850). Among the repeated and long cool spells of weather, the Minor Ice Age is only a brief episode. New evidence indicates that unlike the more time-distant climate changes, the course of natural processes may be reconstructed by written evidence in some historical documents. It makes reconstructions more reliable and allows regarding the Minor Ice Age as a model of climatic changes during the glacier periods. The aim of the research is to study the natural conditions of Western Siberia during the Minor Ice Age. The object of the research is to investigate the natural conditions in Western Siberia and the Altai area. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that complex reconstructions of the natural and climatic conditions of Western Siberia during the Minor Ice Age have been done on the basis of the archive materials and the published literary sources. The basis for the work includes literary sources, the Tomsk Regional Local Museum materials, the scientific sources of the Totolsk Branch of the State Archives of the Tyumen Region, the Storage Centre of the Archives Fund of the Altai region. Summarizing these materials from the point of view of modern geographical science makes it possible to reveal the regularity in the natural development of Western Siberia in the extreme conditions of the Minor Ice Age. The results of the investigation have shown that the major signs of the Minor Ice Age in the region are the following: 1) ) decrease of the average annual, summer and especially winter temperature of the air; 2) growth of frozen areas in the northern seas; 3) mountain freezing growth; 4) lower temperature of long-term frozen rocks and decrease of the depth of their season twanging; 5) more winter precipitation in the Southern part of Western Siberia; 6) early freezing and later breaking-up of rivers. The structure of the seasons of the year during the Minor Ice Age was heterogeneous and dependent on the fall in temperature phases