Abstract:
The article presents data on the microelement composition of waters of the river Terskol over the
5-year period (2012 – 2016). A comparative analysis including other small rivers originating from the Elbrus glaciers (the rivers Azau and Garabashi) and other glaciers (rivers Donguz-Orun and Adylsu with
tributaries) was done. Some mechanisms of the formation of water microelement composition in the high
mountain zone of KBR have been revealed: the enrichment by molybdenum is due to the groundwater; the
high content of copper and zinc is associated with natural geochemical anomaly; differences in concentrations of trace elements between the period of maximum snow melting and the maximum melting of glaciers
is not revealed.
Keywords:rivers of glacial water, heavy metals, Terskol river.