Observations on nearshore pingo growth, Adventdalen, Spitsbergen

Abstract

The open‐system pingos of Svalbard can be divided into three groups. Group I pingos are located over geologic faults. Group II pingos are located in areas of artesian flow resulting from the migration of sub‐glacial groundwater. Pingos of group II occur usually in riverbeds, where the permafrost is locally thinner. Group III pingos are located in nearshore or low‐lying environments of active geologic uplift, where groundwater flow is in response to relict conditions. In this paper group III pingos in the Adventdalen delta area are examined. Group III pingos characteristically have a complex shape and occur in groups. Growth occurs rapidly after initial emergence from marine conditions and the establishment of a minimum permafrost thickness. Water is supplied through discontinuities in the aggrading permafrost. Net influx of water is moderate, owing to relatively thin permafrost.

Anomalous buried hollows in London: development of a hazard susceptibility map

“…Long-term studies of active pingos in the Northwest Territories of Canada have been documented by Mackay (1962Mackay ( , 1979Mackay ( , 1985Mackay ( , 1988. Shorter term studies have also been carried out in Alaska (Holmes et al 1968), Greenland (Christiansen 1995;Scholz & Baumann 1997;Gurney 1998), the Tibetan Plateau (Wu et al 2004(Wu et al , 2005 Spitsbergen (Yoshikawa & Harada 1995) and Svalbard (Ross et al 2007). Classified by Hutchinson (1991) as groundwater discharge features, pingos form as a consequence of the freezing of water, which moves under a pressure gradient to the site of the pingo.…”

“…As previously noted, they fall within two classes: hydraulic (open system, formed under an upward hydraulic gradient) and hydrostatic (closed system, formed under a downward hydraulic gradient and typically forming in drained lake bottoms; Mackay 1998). In some cases faults or dominant joints provide routes for groundwater; for example, in Spitsbergen (Yoshikawa & Harada 1995), Alaska (Holmes et al 1968); West Greenland (Scholz & Baumann 1997) and the Tibetan Plateau (Wu et al 2004(Wu et al , 2005. Ground-ice driven uplift and cracking of the surface soil and sediment leads to instability on the oversteepened sides.…”

Landscape evolution in Martian mid-latitude regions: insights from analogous periglacial landforms in Svalbard

“…Several opensystem (hydraulic) pingos are located near the fans on the valley floor (Fig. 8b, c) (Liestøl 1976;Yoshikawa 1993;Yoshikawa & Harada 1995). River terraces are overprinted by thermal-contraction cracks that form widespread nets of ice-wedge polygons (Fig.…”

Spatial distribution of pingos in northern Asia

“…Beside the main regions of pingo distribution in NW Canada, Alaska, and Siberia, smaller occurrences of pingos are reported from Greenland (Müller, 1959), Svalbard (e.g., Yoshikawa and Harada, 1995), Scandinavia (Lagerbäck and Rohde, 1985), China (Wang and French, 1995), and Mongolia (Lomborinchen, 2000).…”

“…Pingos are a clear indicator for the presence of permafrost. Many detailed studies exist on the unique hydrologic, geologic, and permafrost conditions required for their formation (Soloviev, 1952;Bobov, 1960;Mackay, 1962;Holmes et al, 1968;French, 1976;Ferrians, 1988), growth and decay rates (Mackay, 1978a(Mackay, , 1986(Mackay, , 1987(Mackay, , 1998Yoshikawa, 1991;Yoshikawa and Harada, 1995), and age (Grave, 1956;Craig, 1959;Holmes et al, 1968;Mackay, 1976;Walker et al, 1996;Vasilchuk and Budantseva, 2010). Although the detailed genesis of these perennial frost mounds varies, groundwater migration in unfrozen zones (taliks) within the permafrost plays a key role Published by Copernicus Publications on behalf of the European Geosciences Union.…”