The most general and fundamental geological principles of the formation of sedimentary deposits in the permafrost regions are associated with the questions of grain-size distribution and chemical-mineral composition, structural-textural features and composition of the frozen sediments, the nature of which is elucidated in the course of study of chemical, physicalchemical and physico-mechanical processes that occur in the sediments of the permafrost regions in their stage-by-stage transformation. These questions are dealt with in works by B.I. Vtyurin, E.A. Vtyurina, Sh.Sh. Gasanov, I.D. Danilov, E.D. Yershov, Ye.M. Katanosov, V.N. Konishchev, Yu.A. Lavrushin, A.I. Popov, V.O. Targulyan, I. A. Tyutyunov, P.F. Shvetsov, I. A. Shilo, P.A. Shumskiy et al. In general, sedimentary formations reflect a number of factors and processes of lithogenesis, the development and manifestations of which occur specifically under various geological and geographical conditions. Certain combinations of factors, conditions and processes of lithogenesis predetermine the composition, structure and properties of sedimentary formations. The idea was to distinguish specific and strictly definable types of lithogenesis.

As early as 1957, N.M. Strakhov distinguished types of lithogenesis as specific forms of the lithogenetic process at the stage of sedimentation and diagenesis, giving rise to the quite varied sum total of deposits. This author distinguished four types of recent lithogenesis, namely, ice, humid, arid and volcanogenic-sedimentary.