Intermediate lakes of the Chulym and Kargat river valleys and their role in the evolution of the Lake Chany basin

Abstract The Chulym and Kargat Rivers flow through chains of saucer-shaped depressions, which are swampy meadows or drainage lakes. In the past, all of them were lakes short-lived in different Holocene periods. These depressions accumulated a significant amount of the Chulym and Kargat runoff and thus influenced the water balance of Lake Chany. Our studies have reconstructed the history of these depressions. A model describing their filling with sediments is proposed. The lacustrine sediments penetrated by boreholes and pits are dated by the radiocarbon method at 6.3-2.0 cal. kyr BP. The data obtained explane the long existence of Lake Chany as a shallow basin and rise in its level at ~ 2 kyr BP.