The engineering-geological position reveals the peculiarities of structure and physical-mechanical properties of bottom soil of the Barents and Kara seas. Consider the conditions for the formation of the latest sediments, their relationship with the repeated freezing and defrosting during the late Cenozoic, the peculiarities of polar lithogenesis. Regional factors of variability and features of variability of the physical-mechanical properties of bottom soil with depth are shown. Conclusions are made about the ambiguous influence of the historical-geological factors on physical-mechanical properties of soils. The role of soils, containing submarine gas hydrates, is shown.

The ideas of V. D. Lomtadze on the proper engineering-geological approach, which gives priority to the conditions of interaction between the geological environment and engineering structures, to develop appropriate classifications of soils, are the basis for creating a general engineering-geological classification of the bottom soils of the ocean bottom. The classification distinguishes classes according to stability in interaction with structures, groups according to the nature of structural bonds, subgroups, mainly by strength, genetic types, lithological types and varieties.

In the development of the theory and practice of engineering-geological zoning, two stages are distinguished. At the first of them (the 60-80s of our century) engineering-geological zoning was considered as a means of assessing the engineering-geological conditions of the continents, sometimes together with their underwater continuation to the shelf

Under the formation of engineering-geological conditions we understand the processes of occurrence and history of natural components of the system and their distribution in space, reflected in the patterns of variability and distribution of heterogeneities of properties of these components.

Glacial shelves, understood here as seabed areas underlain by glaciers during certain stages of the Quaternary period, include the bottoms of a number of intracontinental basins, such as the Baltic and White Sea.

To date, the known deposits of solid minerals of the deep ocean are associated with accumulations of ferromanganese nodules.