DOI

  • Sebastian Wetterich
  • Lutz Schirrmeiste
  • Larisa Nazarova
  • Olga Palagushkina
  • Anatoly Bobrov
  • Lilit Pogosyan
  • Larisa Savelieva
  • Liudmila Syrykh
  • Heidrun Matthes
  • Michael Fritz
  • Frank Guenther
  • Thomas Opel
  • Hanno Meyer

Ground ice and sedimentary records of a pingo exposure reveal insights into Holocene permafrost, landscape and climate dynamics. Early to mid-Holocene thermokarst lake deposits contain rich floral and faunal paleoassemblages, which indicate lake shrinkage and decreasing summer temperatures (chironomid-based T-July) from 10.5 to 3.5 cal kyr BP with the warmest period between 10.5 and 8 cal kyr BP. Talik refreezing and pingo growth started about 3.5 cal kyr BP after disappearance of the lake. The isotopic composition of the pingo ice (delta O-18 - 17.1 +/- 0.6 parts per thousand, delta D -144.5 +/- 3.4 parts per thousand, slope 5.85, deuterium excess -7.7 +/- 1.5 parts per thousand) point to the initial stage of closed-system freezing captured in the record. A differing isotopic composition within the massive ice body was found (delta O-18 - 21.3 +/- 1.4 parts per thousand, delta D -165 +/- 11.5 parts per thousand, slope 8.13, deuterium excess 4.9 +/- 3.2 parts per thousand), probably related to the infill of dilation cracks by surface water with quasi-meteoric signature. Currently inactive syngenetic ice wedges formed in the thermokarst basin after lake drainage. The pingo preserves traces of permafrost response to climate variations in terms of ground-ice degradation (thermokarst) during the early and mid-Holocene, and aggradation (wedge-ice and pingo-ice growth) during the late Holocene.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)182-198
Number of pages17
JournalPermafrost and Periglacial Processes
Volume29
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jul 2018

    Research areas

  • bioindicators, cryolithology, hydrochemistry, Khalerchinskaya tundra, stable water isotopes, NORTHERN SEWARD PENINSULA, WESTERN ARCTIC COAST, DMITRY LAPTEV STRAIT, LATE QUATERNARY, STABLE-ISOTOPES, GROUND-ICE, LENA DELTA, DATA SET, PERMAFROST, ALASKA

    Scopus subject areas

  • Earth-Surface Processes

ID: 36425782