Glacial Geomorphology Map of the Altai and Western Sayan Mountains at 1:1,000,000 Scale

A 1:1,000,000 scale map covering almost 600,000 km² of the Altai and Western Sayan Mountains, based on mapping from 30 m resolution ASTER DEM and 15 m/30 m resolution Landsat ETM+ satellite imagery. The map, presented by Robin Blomdin, includes four landform classes: marginal moraines, glacial lineations, hummocky terrain, and glacial valleys. It estimates past glacier coverage at 65,000 km², compared to a present-day coverage of 1,300 km².

Use Cases

• Reconstructing past glacier dimensions based on mapped marginal moraines and glacial valleys.
• Analyzing the style of past glaciations (e.g., alpine-style vs. ice sheet) based on the distribution of erosional and depositional landforms.
• Quantifying changes in glacier coverage over time based on the estimated past and present areas.
• Validating glacial models using the mapped abundance of glacial lineations and hummocky terrain.

Strengths

• Covers a large area of almost 600,000 km².
• Based on satellite imagery with 15 m to 30 m resolution.
• Includes four specific landform classes: marginal moraines, glacial lineations, hummocky terrain, and glacial valleys.
• Provides quantitative estimates for past (65,000 km²) and present (1,300 km²) glacier coverage.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.
• The specific file formats and data structure are unknown.

Provenance

Source

Robin Blomdin

Collection Method

Mapping from 30 m resolution ASTER DEM and 15 m/30 m resolution Landsat ETM+ satellite imagery.

Time Range

Pleistocene to present (inferred from paleoglacial reconstruction).

Geography

Altai and Western Sayan Mountains, Central Asia.