Distribution of pingos from topographic maps, permafrost region, Siberia (RU)

A detailed attributed point feature shapefile of 6059 pingo locations in a 3.5 × 10⁶ km² region of northern Asia was manually assembled from 1:200 000 scale Russian topographic maps. These medium-scale maps are based on detailed mapping efforts at 1:50 000 and 1:100 000 scales, which in turn are derived from aerial photography acquired in the 1970-1980s (Soviet Military Topographic Survey or Voenno-Topograficheskoe Upravle-nie General'nogo Shtaba, VTU GSh). A first order analysis of pingo distribution was carried out with respect to permafrost, landscape characteristics, surface geology, hydrology, climate, and elevation datasets using a Geographic Information System. The study area comprises the North Asian lowland regions of North, Northeast, Far East and Central Siberia and adjacent mountain ranges from 60.0° N to 76.3° N latitude and 60.0° E to 180.0° W longitude. The geographic re-gions covered in this study are the northern part of the West Siberian Lowlands including the Yamal and Gydan peninsulas, Taymyr Peninsula, Putorana Plateau, Khatanga-Anabar-Olenek Lowlands, Lena River Delta, Lena River Valley, central Yakutian Lowlands around Yakutsk; Yana-Indigirka-Kolyma Lowlands, New Siberian Islands, and the far east Siberian Chukotka region.