Ice Complex permafrost of MIS5 age in the Dmitry Laptev Strait coastal region (East Siberian Arctic)

Abstract

ice-wedge ice indicates winter conditions colder than during the MIS3 interstadial and warmer than during MIS2 stadial, and similar atmospheric winter moisture sources as during the MIS2 stadial. Buchchagy Ice Complex pollen spectra reveal tundra-steppe vegetation and harsher summer conditions than during the MIS3 interstadial and rather similar vegetation as during the MIS2 stadial. Short-term climatic variability during MIS5 is reflected in the record. Even though the regional chronostratigraphic relationship of the Buchchagy Ice Complex to the Last Interglacial remains unclear because numerical dating is widely lacking, the present study indicates permafrost (Ice Complex) formation during MIS5 sensu lato, and its preservation afterwards. Palaeoenvironmental insights into past climate and the periglacial landscape dynamics of arctic lowlands in eastern Siberia are deduced from the record.

Ice wedges as archives of winter paleoclimate: A review

“…Previous paleoclimate studies of ice wedges have covered different timescales of the late Quaternary. Due to syngenetic ice‐wedge growth—often over tens of thousands of years—and limited dating methods, the temporal resolution of ice‐wedge paleoclimate studies is often very low and corresponds to specific stratigraphic units of the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene, depending on the dating techniques applied …”

“…Currently, the ages of ice wedges are determined either indirectly by dating of host sediments or by direct dating of the wedges themselves. The indirect approach attributes ice wedges to stratigraphic units and dates the host sediments using radiocarbon, radioisotope disequilibrium, luminescence, or fission‐track dating of tephra . However, the temporal relationship of ice wedges to dated host sediments is complex and variable.…”

‘Semi‐dwarf’ woolly mammoths from the East Siberian Sea coast, continental Russia

“…For comparison, in the outcrop of Oyogos Yar to the west of the Alazeya region, the main fraction (approximately 70%) of the Yedoma deposits is medium‐coarse silt (25–56 microns) (Wetterich et al . ). The amount of clay particles in these sediments is no more than 10%, and sand particles constitute 20%.…”

“…The composition of the sediment from the molar roots is similar to that of the Yedoma Complex (loess-like deposits with high ice content, typical of the eastern lowland Arctic regions of NE Russia), with a large silt fraction (more than 2/3). For comparison, in the outcrop of Oyogos Yar to the west of the Alazeya region, the main fraction (approximately 70%) of the Yedoma deposits is medium-coarse silt (25-56 microns) (Wetterich et al 2016). The amount of clay particles in these sediments is no more than 10%, and sand particles constitute 20%.…”

“…The deposits in the Duvanny Yar section on the lower Kolyma River are similar to the Oyogos Yar deposits, and are considered aeolian sediments or 'cold loess' (Murton et al 2015). In other cases, the Yedoma was considered an overbank alluvial facies because of the presence of sand lenses and characteristic stratification (Arkhangelov et al 1979;Wetterich et al 2016).…”