This book is a collection of papers based on Soviet snow quilt as the research object. It conforms to the background of the times when natural resources are most fully and effectively utilized for the comprehensive development of the national economy. Snow quilt is an important natural resource that has not yet been fully studied and utilized. It has a significant impact on various natural processes, including soil water and heat conditions, which largely determine crop yields. Snow's physical and mechanical properties have spatio-temporal variability. It is extremely strong, and it is necessary to study its dynamic geographical characteristics to use snow quilt in agriculture, carry out hydrological calculations and forecasts, and organize snow disaster prevention. The materials collected in the collection focus on describing the dynamic characteristics of snow layers in a series of areas of the Soviet Union, analyzing their impact on landforms, hydrological processes and vegetation coverage, and viewing snow as an integral part of the landscape that is closely related to other elements of the natural environment; It also includes for the first time a schematic map of global land snow cover and some new data on Antarctic snow migration. Although the latter does not involve Soviet territory, it is of great scientific significance. The collection is accompanied by a literature index on snow and snow covers from 1955 to 1958, which is a continuation of similar indexes from 1950 to 1954 published in Snow and Meltwater: Their Research and Utilization (Soviet Academy of Sciences Press, 1956).