Application of Landsat-7 satellite data and a DEM for the quantification of thermokarst-affected terrain types in the periglacial Lena?Anabar coastal lowland

Grosse, Guido; Schirrmeister, Lutz; Malthus, Tim J.

doi:10.1111/j.1751-8369.2006.tb00150.x

Cited by 33 publications

(19 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…According to Schirrmeister et al (2008) the stratigraphy of the permafrost sequences cropping out at the coast covers late Pleistocene and Holocene strata and is composed of less ice-rich fluvial silts and sands with peat layers, covered with 20-30 m thick ice-supersaturated silty to sandy Ice Complex deposits. Holocene thermokarst deposits have been found in alasses, thermoerosional valleys and in places discordantly superimposing the Ice Complex (Grosse et al, 2006). The hinterland of the coast is gently inclined towards the Laptev Sea in the north with a mean slope of 0.1 • and incised by a dendritic network of thermo-erosional valleys .…”

Section: Mamontov Klykmentioning

confidence: 97%

Short- and long-term thermo-erosion of ice-rich permafrost coasts in the Laptev Sea region

et al. 2013

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Permafrost coasts in the Arctic are susceptible to a variety of changing environmental factors all of which currently point to increasing coastal erosion rates and mass fluxes of sediment and carbon to the shallow arctic shelf seas. Rapid erosion along high yedoma coasts composed of Ice Complex permafrost deposits creates impressive coastal ice cliffs and inspired research for designing and implementing change detection studies for a long time, but continuous quantitative monitoring and a qualitative inventory of coastal thermo-erosion for large coastline segments is still lacking. Our goal is to use observations of thermo-erosion along the mainland coast of the Laptev Sea, in eastern Siberia, to understand how it depends on coastal geomorphology and the relative contributions of water level and atmospheric drivers. We compared multi-temporal sets of orthorectified satellite imagery from 1965 to 2011 for three segments of coastline ranging in length from 73 to 95 km and analyzed thermo-denudation (TD) along the cliff top and thermo-abrasion (TA) along the cliff bottom for two nested time periods: long-term rates (the past 39–43 yr) and short-term rates (the past 1–4 yr). The Normalized Difference Thermo-erosion Index (NDTI) was used as a proxy to qualitatively describe the relative proportions of TD and TA. Mean annual erosion rates at all three sites were higher in recent years (−5.3 ± 1.3 m a⁻¹) than over the long-term mean (−2.2 ± 0.1 m a⁻¹). The Mamontov Klyk coast exhibits primarily spatial variations of thermo-erosion, while intrasite-specific variations caused by local relief were strongest at the Buor Khaya coast, where the slowest long-term rates of around −0.5 ± 0.1 m a⁻¹ were observed. The Oyogos Yar coast showed continuously rapid erosion up to −6.5 ± 0.2 m a⁻¹. In general, variable characteristics of coastal thermo-erosion were observed not only between study sites and over time, but also within single coastal transects along the cliff profile. Varying intensities of cliff bottom and top erosion are leading to diverse qualities of coastal erosion that have different impacts on coastal mass fluxes. The different extents of Ice Complex permafrost degradation within our study sites turned out to influence not only the degree of coupling between TD and TA, and the magnitude of effectively eroded volumes, but also the quantity of organic carbon released to the shallow Laptev Sea from coastal erosion, which ranged on a long-term from 88 ± 21 to 800 ± 61 t per km coastline per year and will correspond to considerably higher amounts, if recently observed more rapid coastal erosion rates prove to be persistent

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Section: Mamontov Klykmentioning

confidence: 97%

Short- and long-term thermo-erosion of ice-rich permafrost coasts in the Laptev Sea region

et al. 2013

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“…Thermokarst in ice‐rich Yedoma expresses as large and partly coalesced basins with up to 40 m depth and several km width. According to remote sensing calculations about 50% of the Yedoma areas in the Siberian Laptev Sea lowlands are characterized by thermokarst depressions, and up to 80% of the area shows signs of permafrost degradation [ Grosse et al , 2006].…”

Section: Permafrost Degradation and Thermokarst On Earthmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Their origin has been attributed to periglacial processes and permafrost degradation [e.g., Seibert and Kargel , 2001; Kuzmin and Zabalueva , 2003; Mangold , 2005; Soare et al , 2005a], but aeolian processes [ Soare et al , 2005b] and structural control [ Yoshikawa , 2003] have also been suggested. Our focus is on degradation features and their formation, and we compare the observations with our own field experience in Arctic Siberia as terrestrial reference [ Grosse et al , 2005, 2006, 2007].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deposition and degradation of a volatile‐rich layer in Utopia Planitia and implications for climate history on Mars

et al. 2007

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[1] We investigate the surface morphology of a study area in western Utopia Planitia, Mars, which is characterized by a variety of landforms that resemble those of terrestrial periglacial landscapes. Polygonally fractured ground and thermokarst-like depressions are found to be located in a young mantling deposit with a thickness of several tens of meters. We observe a latitudinal dependence of the degradation of this mantling deposit. Larger depressions, whose floors reveal the underlying basement rocks, cover a higher fraction of the total terrain in the southern part of the study area than in the northern part, indicating a more intense degradation of the mantle in the south. All depressions have an asymmetric cross section in north-south direction, interpreted to be the result of the different solar radiation on differently oriented slopes. On the basis of our morphological observations, we develop a conceptual model for landscape evolution in western Utopia Planitia. It involves subaerial deposition of a layered, ice-rich mantle and its subsequent degradation by polygon formation and sublimation. A terrestrial analog to the polygonally fractured mantling deposit and its thermokarst-like depressions is the Siberian Ice Complex or ''Yedoma,'' which consists of subaerial ice-rich deposits and is connected to nonglaciated landscapes with highly continental cold-climatic environmental conditions. Our comparison suggests that no unusual or exotic processes need to be invoked to explain the current morphology of western Utopia. However, the young age of the deposition and degradation implies climatic excursions in the very recent past on Mars.

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“…Thermokarst lakes have mainly formed during the course of the Holocene and are a sign of local permafrost degradation following post glacial climate warming [ Rampton , 1988; Romanovskii et al , 2004; Walter et al , 2007]. Thermokarst lakes are abundant surface features across many high latitude regions, such as the Seward Peninsula [ Hopkins , 1949; West and Plug , 2008; Plug and West , 2009], the Arctic Coastal Plain [ Sellmann et al , 1975; Hinkel et al , 2005] as well as several areas in Interior Alaska [ Jorgenson and Osterkamp , 2005]; in Canada on Banks Island [ Harry and French , 1983], Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula [ Mackay , 1988], the Yukon Coastal Plain [ West and Plug , 2008; Plug and West , 2009], and Richards Island [ Burn , 2002], and in large regions of Siberia [ Romanovskii et al , 2004, Tomirdiaro and Ryabchun , 1973; Zimov et al , 1997; Smith et al , 2005; Grosse et al , 2006; Walter et al , 2007; Grosse et al , 2011]. While not all northern, high‐latitude lakes are of thermokarst origin [ Jorgenson and Shur , 2007; Smith et al , 2007], their importance to global climate change and northern high latitude soil and permafrost‐stored carbon cycling has been noted [ Zimov et al , 1997; Walter et al , 2006; Walter et al , 2007].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modern thermokarst lake dynamics in the continuous permafrost zone, northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska

et al. 2011

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[1] Quantifying changes in thermokarst lake extent is of importance for understanding the permafrost-related carbon budget, including the potential release of carbon via lake expansion or sequestration as peat in drained lake basins. We used high spatial resolution remotely sensed imagery from 1950/51, 1978, and 2006/07 to quantify changes in thermokarst lakes for a 700 km 2 area on the northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska. The number of water bodies larger than 0.1 ha increased over the entire observation period (666 to 737 or +10.7%); however, total surface area decreased (5,066 ha to 4,312 ha or −14.9%). This pattern can largely be explained by the formation of remnant ponds following partial drainage of larger water bodies. Thus, analysis of large lakes (>40 ha) shows a decrease of 24% and 26% in number and area, respectively, differing from lake changes reported from other continuous permafrost regions. Thermokarst lake expansion rates did not change substantially between 1950/51 and 1978 (0.35 m/yr) and 1978 and 2006/07 (0.39 m/yr). However, most lakes that drained did expand as a result of surface permafrost degradation before lateral drainage. Drainage rates over the observation period were stable (2.2 to 2.3 per year). Thus, analysis of decadal-scale, high spatial resolution imagery has shown that lake drainage in this region is triggered by lateral breaching and not subterranean infiltration. Future research should be directed toward better understanding thermokarst lake dynamics at high spatial and temporal resolution as these systems have implications for landscape-scale hydrology and carbon budgets in thermokarst lake-rich regions in the circum-Arctic.

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Application of Landsat-7 satellite data and a DEM for the quantification of thermokarst-affected terrain types in the periglacial Lena?Anabar coastal lowland

Cited by 33 publications

References 35 publications

Short- and long-term thermo-erosion of ice-rich permafrost coasts in the Laptev Sea region

Short- and long-term thermo-erosion of ice-rich permafrost coasts in the Laptev Sea region

Deposition and degradation of a volatile‐rich layer in Utopia Planitia and implications for climate history on Mars

Modern thermokarst lake dynamics in the continuous permafrost zone, northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska

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