Morphology and History of the Upper Kama and Kolva Valleys in the Late Glacial and Holocene

Abstract

—The article deals with the evolution of the river network of the northern Kama region, a region that has experienced the influence of a late quaternary glacier. This glacier was located to the north, in the basins of the upper Vychegda and Pechora, but the influence of its meltwater was reflected in the restructuring of the river network of the lowland Kama-Vychegda interfluve. In order to find out the extent of this influence in the conditions of postglacial warming, the article compares the floodplain-channel complexes of the Upper Kama and Kolva formed in the Holocene. In the upper Kama in the late Quaternary, there was a flow of water from Vychegda along the rivers North and South Keltma; there were no additional water flows to the Kolva River, located 30 km to the east. It turned out that the parameters of the floodplain-channel complexes of both rivers are identical. Consequently, the flow of the Vychegda waters into the Kama was carried out not in the late Quaternary-Holocene time, but earlier, and it was no longer reflected on the channels and floodplains of the Kama and Kolva. At the same time, on the Kama – Vychegda interfluve there are traces of other watercourses that have now disappeared, formed during the melting of the glacier. The origin and time of the formation of these “blind” watercourses have yet to be determined.