ABSTRACT
The thickness of the submarine permafrost at some places reaches 120-150 m. Sometimes there are several layers of permafrost, divided by "talik." The available results of the submarine permafrost study on the Eurasiatic part of the shelf are concrete input into the efforts to assess the environmental hazards of the American part of the Arctic shelf. Evidence from northern Europe and Siberia, Chukotka Peninsula, the Bering Strait, and other sites, including the Arctic and Atlantic bottom deposits, gives a picture of the isolation of the Arctic Basin from the Global Ocean and explains the cold marine transgression phenomena. The simple ice cap development in the Bering Strait and Bering Sea is a good explanation of the isolation from that side of the Arctic. The concept of shelf glaciation is probable, but only for a limited and shallow part of the Barents Sea.
