Exogenous modeling mechanism at the northern slope of the Peter the First Ridge (Pamiro-Alai)

Abstract

The Peter the First Ridge is young mountain structure which came into being during the Pleistocene due to an intermontane trough inversion within the frontal zone of interaction of the Indostan and Eurasian plates. The primary tectonic topography of the ridge's northern flank is reworked mainly within large foci of recent erosion, so-called erosional cirques. Specialists from the Institute of Geography (Academy of ciences of the USSR) carried out a series of repeated surface stereogrammetric surveys in two erosional cirques. Comparison of the survey material of different years permits to estimate the changes both qualitatively and quantitatively, reveals impulse character of mass movement at slopes and shows the cirques evolution. The data obtained formed the basis of the concept of the second wave of the backward erosion to be the main mechanism of the exogenous remodelling of the primary topography at the Peter the First Ridge northern flank, a scheme of the erosional dissection is outlined.