Monitoring the Descending Branch of the Lithodynamic Circulation of Matter in the Baikal Basin
摘要
This article considers the regular patterns of exogenous processes in the Baikal basin, established on the basis of monitoring data of their long-term dynamics. The analysis is based on an extensive database obtained on the western, southern, and eastern shores of Lake Baikal. The research methods include experimental observations (runoff sites, benchmark method, dust collectors, etc.) on representative sites, the interpretation of space images, and aerial photography from remotely piloted aircraft. Most attention is focused on characteristics such as the rate of processes and direction and volume of matter transport due to mudflows, landslides, coastal abrasion, and the activity of water and wind flows. This article shows the temporal organization of exogenous processes, expressed in a pronounced rhythmicity of their course, controlled by changes in secular and intrasecular cycles of water content in Lake Baikal. It is established that low-water periods are characterized by a high intensity of aeolian migration of matter. Detailed observations during the last low-water period recorded its average value of 500 g/m2. During high-water periods, erosion processes are active, mudflows and landslides are recorded, and shore erosion occurs. Intensive mudflows were recorded in 1930–1938, 1960–1962, and 1968–1972, with a maximum in 1971, when the total volume of drift from the slopes along the river valleys between the towns of Baikalsk and Slyudyanka amounted to more than 1 million m3 of loose rock. The results make it possible to predict the further course of processes and minimize the negative consequences of their manifestation.