Coastal Retreat Due to Thermodenudation on the Yugorsky Peninsula, Russia during the Last Decade, Update since 2001–2010

Abstract

Thermodenudation on the Kara seacoast, the Yugorsky Peninsula, Russia, is studied by analyzing remote-sensing data. Landforms resulting from the thaw of tabular ground ice, referred to as thermocirques, are formed due to polycyclic retrogressive thaw slumps, during the last decade 2010–2020. We calculate the retreat rate of the thermocirque edge using various statistical approaches. We compared thermocirque outlines by the end of each time interval defined by the dates of available very-high-resolution imagery. Six thermocirques within two key sites on the Yugorsky peninsula are monitored. We correlate each of the thermocirque edge’s retreat rates to various climatic parameters obtained at the Amderma weather station to understand the interrelation patterns better. As a result, we find a very low correlation between the retreat rate of each thermocirque and summer warmth, rainfall, and wave action. In general, the activity of thermodenudation decreases in time from the previous decade (2001–2010) to 2010–2020, and from 2010 towards 2020, although the summer warmth trend increases dramatically. A single thermocirque or series of thermocirques expand in response to environmental and geological factors in coastal retreat caused by thermodenudation.

A Third of Organic Carbon Is Mineral Bound in Permafrost Sediments Exposed by the World's Largest Thaw Slump, Batagay, Siberia

“…Thaw slumping can be initiated, for example, by either lateral or thermal erosion by water [24]; active layer detachment following heavy precipitation [27]; and human activity such as road construction, mining, or deforestation [28]. The retreat of the collapse front each summer can reach several (tens of) meters per year [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36][37]. These structures therefore expose and relocate large volumes of material [31,36,[38][39][40], such as thawed sediments or melt water, and involve masses of previously perennially frozen carbon in the form of plant and animal remains, until they stabilize.…”

The study was funded by the Russian Science Foundation, project number 22-27-00644.

“…Картографирование КОТФР предпринималось неоднократно, в том числе последние 12 лет, после значительной активизации криогенного оползания по подземным льдам [16,[18][19][20][21]. Мы проанализировали более 3000 КОТФР на севере Западной Сибири, часть которых подверглась статистической обработке [7,22], некоторые обследованы также и при полевой съемке [5].…”