I92I. No. II. THE STRANDFLAT AND ISOSTASY. 211 



XIII. THE STRANDFLAT ALONG COASTS INSIDE 

 AND OUTSIDE THE ARCTIC REGIONS. 



The Coasts of Siberia, Greenland, and Alaska. 



Along the north coast of Siberia there is a well-developed emerged 

 strandfiat, which I have previously described [1904, pp. 20 ff., PI. III]. 

 On the Eastern Taimur Peninsula and the Chelyuskin Peninsula, between 

 the mouth of Taimur River and Chatanga Bay, it forms a very conspicuous 

 level foreland backed by mountains rising abruptly above its plane [see 

 1904, PI. Ill, Figs. I — 4]. Its height, near the coast, was estimated to be 

 less than 30 metres above the sea, it has a considerable width, and forms 

 a continuous level plain along most part of the coast, extending hori- 

 zontally to the foot of the mountains. It is cut in solid rock, but is to 

 a great extent covered with drift material, which may in some places 

 attain considerable thickness. The coast between Taimur Bay (the Norden- 

 skiöld Archipelago) and the mouth of Yenisei River is low, and as there 

 are few mountains or hills near the sea, it is difficult to say whether 

 the whole of this low land is actually a strandfiat which has been cut 

 horizontally by shore erosion. We must in that case assume that most 

 initial hills surmounting the plane of this strandfiat have been planed 

 down. As this coast land and the islands outside are so very flat [cf. 1904, 

 Pi. Ill, Figs. 7 — 10, PI. I\', Fig. i], and considering that there is a quite 

 similar low coastland with low islands to the north forming a foreland 

 or regular strandfiat in front of the steep mountain sides, it seems to me 

 to be probable that this land too has been levelled by shore erosion, and 

 that it is actually a strandfiat. 



The sea along the north coast of Siberia is very shallow; often 30 or 

 40 kilometres or more from the coast, it has depths less than 40 and 50 

 metres. The soundings taken in this region are, however, much too few 

 to make any study of the topography of the sea-bottom possible. It has 

 to be considered that there is an exceptionally broad continental shelf, 

 with depths less than 100 metres, extending a great distance north from 

 the Siberian coast, in the region of the New Siberian Islands even as much 

 as 600 or 700 kilometres, and that the whole of this sea is therefore very 

 shallow. As it is especially shallow outside the mouths of the great rivers. 



