Research has been conducted on the permafrost in the Sentsa River valley. The paper considers the use of direct (total station) and remote (aerial photography) methods for studying cryogenic landforms. Morphometric measurements were performed on a key site using total station survey. The influence of the level regime of the Sentsa river on the dynamics of the landfill relief is noted. Deciphering the images obtained using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) made it possible to establish morphometric changes in the heaving hillocks, and the area affected by the cryogenic process was calculated in the form of the percentage of heaving-free areas to the total area of the key site. From the surface the frost mound consists of interlayering silts, ice-rich clayey silts and pure ice lenses, cryostructures are layered, cross-laminated, lenticular, reticulate and basal. On one of the large frost mound in the Sentsa River valley the borehole was drilled to a several wells for the regime geothermal observations. Conclusions about are the using UAVs for the study of cryogenic terrain represented.

Pellinen Vadim Alexandrovich, Candidate of Sciences (Geology and Mineralogy), Junior Researcher, Institute of the Earth’s Crust SB RAS, 128, Lermontov st., Irkutsk, 664033, Russian Federation, e-mail: vadim.a.pellinen@yandex.ru 

Svetlakov Artem Aleksandrovich, Candidate of Sciences (Geology and Mineralogy), Scientific Researcher, Institute of the Earth’s Crust SB RAS, 128, Lermontov st., Irkutsk, 664033, Russian Federation, e-mail: sir.swetlackov@yandex.ru

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