A Digital Database on Tabular Ground Ice in the Arctic

A digital database on tabular ground ice in the Arctic

I.D. Streletskaya, N.G. Ukraintseva & I.D. Drozdov Lomonosov Moscow State University, Faculty of Geography, Moscow, Russia

ABSTRACT: A digital database on tabular ground ice (TGI) was compiled in Moscow State University. The additional information is available on the INTERNET http://www.geogr.msu.ru/cryolithology. The database on tabular ground ice is in HTML format. The graphical information is included in JPG and GIF formats. Primary information is digitised using MS Excel, MS Word, and PhotoShop software. This makes digital data convertible. The database includes information covering more than 164 study sites in the Arctic coastal zone. Of those more than 134 are located in Russia. It covers research of the tabular ground ice in the Arctic for the last century. A bibliography of 370 scientific references published in Russia, Canada and USA had been compiled from a review of over 500 monographs, books, and papers.

1 INTRODUCTION (Chukotka). A wide range of hypotheses exists how- ever in connection with the formation of TGI within Tabular ground ice (massive ground ice) is widely the plains. The two main hypotheses are that it consists spread over the coastal Arctic regions of Eurasia and of buried Pleistocene glacial ice (Kaplyanskaya & North America and was noted by the first Arctic Tarnogradsky 1986, Solomatin 1986, French & Harry researchers. This paper refers to tabular ground ice with 1988), or that it was formed in situ within the enclosing a thickness of 1–50 m. Systematic studies began in sediments (intrasedimental) (Gasanov 1964, Dubikov Russia in the 1960’s when its widespread distribution 2002, Mackay 1971, Fujino, K et al. 1988, Pollard & in West Siberia was established. Tabular ground ice Dallimore 1988, Harry et al. 1988, Mackay & (TGI) is found north of latitude 53°N in the mountains Dallimore 1992, Pollard & Bell 1998). Recently, and north of latitude 66°N in the plains of the Moorman et al. (1998) suggested that glacial melt Northern Hemisphere. TGI is most often found in the water filtration was responsible for the formation of sections of Western Siberia and the Canadian Arctic intrasedimental ice. plains, whilst less is found in Alaska, Chukotka, and northern Europe (Vtyurin 1975, Popov (ed.) 1982, French & Pollard 1986, Kato et al. 1988, Robinson & 2 BIBLIOGRAPHY Pollard 1998). TGI does not occur in non-glaciated areas, such as the coastal plains of Yakutia, where dur- The scientific publications inventory was compiled ing the long-lasting continental sedimentation thick using literature available in a number of personal syngenetic ice-wedge complexes were formed. The libraries and in libraries of the following institutions: widest distribution of tabular ice is linked to lowland 1 Moscow State University areas where there have been several Pleistocene marine 2 Earth Cryosphere Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian transgressions (Western Urals’piedmont, Yamal, Gydan Academy of Sciences and Yugorsky Peninsulas, Yenisei-river mouth and 3 Russian State Library coastal areas of the Chukotka Peninsula). 4 Industrial and Research Institute of Investigations TGI is most often linked to the lithological contacts for Construction (PNIIIS). of sandy saline deposits underlying an ice body overlain by clays. The period of tabular ground ice formation is A bibliography of 370 scientific references published characterised by a specific geological sedimentary stage in Russia, Canada and the USA was compiled from a within the Quaternary. These specific environmental review of over 500 monographs, books, and papers. conditions have no modern analogues. Manifestations 123 of these are non-Russian publications. The expe- of this stage are found in regional sections from north- ditions organised in Russia at the end of the 1960’s eastern Europe to Chukotka. This may be interpreted were aimed at the study of massive ground ice and in as similar succession of sedimentation (marine) and the 1970’s and 80’s a majority of papers that were pub- freezing continental conditions in these areas. Most lished included monographs. likely, such conditions were characteristic of the Late Information was collected comprising the morphol- Pleistocene. ogy and morphometry of the TGI, ice content, chemi- There has been little discussion of the TGI of moun- cal composition of ice and enclosing deposits, isotope tainous areas where it occurs mostly as buried glaciers composition of ground ice, structure of ground ice,

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20 Number of Points and Publications 0 I II III IV VVI VII VIII IX X XIXII XIII XIV Regions Figure 1. The number of publications and study sites distribution in various geographic regions. I – Spitsbergen; II – Franz Josef Land; III – Novaya Zemlya; IV – Kolskii; V – European North; VI – West Siberia (Yamal-Gydan province); VII – West Siberia (Central part); VIII – East Siberia (Enisei North, North-Siberian plain, Taimyr peninsula); IX – East Siberia (Yana- Indigirka plain, Kolyma plain); X – Chukotka; XI – Kamchatka; XII – Alaska; XIII – North-west Territorie, Canada; XIV – Arctic Archipelago, Canada. location maps and geological sections. While the review includes a geographic region, point number, location, was very extensive, it was not possible to do an exhaus- authors, title, publisher, source, publication year and tive review of all publications for the period of the pages. The reference ends in a number of key words. study. Peripheral publications not recently acquired by In addition to the reference, the database contains a the central libraries were not included. Canadian and summary of each reference, scanned versions of pub- American bibliography are not so extensive but include lished tables and figures containing information on the better known publications and the International morphology, morphometry, chemical composition of Permafrost Conference Proceedings. A lot of Canadian ice and enclosing deposits and the isotope composi- and American publications refer to the period tion of the ice. Scanned figures represent geological 1980–1990. sections, diagrams of various properties of ice and The database includes information covering more enclosing deposits. than 164 study sites in the Arctic coastal zone. Among those more than 134 are located in Russia. It describes research about massive ground ice in the Arctic for the 4 DISCUSSION last century (Streletskaya et al. 2001, 2002). The sites also cover various geographic regions, the distribution TGI is found north of latitude 53° in the mountains of which is shown in (Fig. 1). and north of latitude 66° in the plains. The most widespread distribution of TGI is linked to lowlands areas where several marine transgressions occurred during 3 A DIGITAL DATABASE OF TABULAR the Pleistocene (Western Urals’ piedmont, Yamal, GROUND ICE PROPERTIES Gydan and Yugorsky Peninsular, Yenisei-river mouth, coastal areas of Chukotka Peninsula). The database on tabular massive ground ice is in References in the database lead to the differentiation HTML format so that can be viewed in any Java- between relatively thick (more than 7–10 m) layers of equipped brower. The graphical information is included TGI found in specific settings and more widely distrib- in JPG and GIF formats. Primary information was pre- uted thinner layers of TGI. The origin of thick layers of pared using MicrosoftTM Excel, Word, and AdobeTM TGI is the subject of some debate. Most references sup- PhotoShop software. The database can be viewed and port the idea of TGI forming as a result of ground water edited on any PC which has the appropriate software. A migration under gradual freezing of exposed marine Circum-Arctic Map was used as an Index map (Fig. 2). sediments either during regression of the sea, or with a The Index map was subdivided into 12 location rising landmass. Models and a few observations sup- maps. A user can choose one of the geographical areas port the possibility of TGI formation in sub sea condi- and site specific data by selecting individual points on tions. TGI is most often found at the contact between the regional map. The data includes the list of refer- saline, fine-grained sedimentary deposits overlying ences relevant to this point (having more or less the sandy sediments. In some cases other mechanisms, such same geographical coordinates). Each reference as the burial of surface ice, are also recognised.

1108 Figure 2. Index Map with points of TGI locations.

Sediments, enclosing TGI often have syngenetic ice REFERENCES wedges of various ages at the top of the section, testi- fying to a change of sedimentary and thermal regimes Dubikov, G.I. 2002. Composition and cryogenic structure following the formation of tabular ice in the maritime of permafrost in Western Siberia. Moscow: GEOS. (in lowlands. Russian). TGI formation is characteristic of a specific geolog- French, H.M. & Harry, D.G. 1988. Nature and origin of ground ice, Sandhills Morain, Southwest Banks ical sedimentary stage in the Quaternary. These envi- Island, Western Canadian Arctic. Journal of Quater- ronmental conditions have no present-day analogues. nary Science 3(1): 19–30. Manifestations of this stage are found in regional French, H.M. & Pollard, W.H. 1986. Ground ice investiga- generalised sections from Northeastern Europe to tion, Klondake District, Yukon Territory. Canadian Chukotka. This may be interpreted as a similar suc- Journal of Science 23: 550–560. cession of marine sedimentation and freezing conti- Fujino, K., Sato, S., Matsuda, K. & Sasa, G. 1988. Char- nental conditions at all these areas. Most likely, such acteristics of the massive ground ice body in western conditions were characteristic of the Late Pleistocene. Canadian Arctic. In Proc. Fifth inter. conf. on perma- In contrast, there is a rather wide distribution of frost, Trondheim: 143–147. Norway: Tapir Publishers. ice (thick 0.5–10 m) which is found in terrestrial Gasanov, Sh. 1964. Ground ice of Chukotka Peninsula. In Proceedings of Siberian Department of Academy of Quaternary deposits (fluvial, fluvial-lacustrine, collu- Science of the USSR. Permafrost grounds of the vial and glacial). The thickness of these ice bodies is Chukotka 10: 14–41. Magadan: Publisher House (in much less than that described above. It is apparent that Russian). they are of intrusion, segregation or buried surface Harry, D.G., French, H.M. & Pollard, W.H. 1988. Massive (glacial, marine, lake, river) ice origin. These types of Ground Ice and ice-cored terrain near Sabine Point, ice are also forming under current conditions which is Yukon coastal Plain. Canadian Journal of Science why their origin is rather more clear. 25(11): 1846–1856. Kaplyanskaya, F.A. & Tarnogradsky, V.D. 1986. Remnants of the Pleistocene ice sheets in permafrost zone as an object for paleoglaciological research. Polar Geography ACKNOWLEDGMENTS and Geology 10: 257–266. Kato, K., Sato, S. & Fujino, K. 1988. Profiles of oxygen This work was supported by the INTAS, grant isotopes and chemical compositions in a core from a 97–0484. massive ice body in Mackenzie Delta, N.W.T., Canada.

1109 In Fujino Kazuo (ed.), Characteristics of Massive Lewkowicz, A.G. & Allard, M. (eds), Permafrost. Ground Ice Body in the Western Canadian Arctic Proceedings Seventh International Conference. Related to Paleoclimatology 1986–1987: 43–57. Yellowknife, Canada, June, 23–27, 1998: 903–907. Sapporo: Kosoku Printing Center. Popov, A.I. (ed) 1982. Massive ground of cryolithozone. Mackay, J.R. 1971. The origin of massive ice beds in per- Yakutsk: Permafrost Institute Press (in Russian). mafrost, Western Arctic coast, Canada. Canadian Robinson, S.D. & Pollard, W.H. 1998. Massive ground ice Journal of Earth Science 8 (4): 397–422. within the Eureka Sound bedrock, Ellesmere Island, Mackay, J.R. & Dallimore, S.R. 1992. Massive ice of the Canada. In Lewkowicz, A.G. &Allard, M. (eds), Tuktoyaktuk area western Arctic coast, Canada. Permafrost. Proceedings Seventh International Con- Canadian Journal of Earth Science 29: 1235–1249. ference, Yellowknife, Canada, June 23–27, 1998: Moorman, B.J., Michel, F.A. & Wilson, A.T 1998. The 949–953. development of tabular massive ground ice at Peninsula Solomatin, V.I. 1986. Petrology of underground ice. Point, N.T.W. Canada. In Lewkowicz, A.G. & Allard, Novosibirsk: Nauka Press (in Russian). M. (eds), Permafrost. Proceedings Seventh Inter- Streletskaya, I.D., Ukraintseva, N.G. & Drozdov, I.D. 2001. national Conference, Yellowknife, Canada, June 23–27, Distribution of massive ground ice in the Arctic and 1998: 757–761: University Laval, Centre d’etudes review of views on its origin. In Abstracts. First nordiques, Collection Nordicana 57. Ruropean Permafrost Conference, Rome, Italy, March Pollard, W.H. & Dallimore, S.R. 1988. Petrographic charac- 26–28, 2001. Rome: 44. teristic of massive ground ice, Yukon coastal Plain, Streletskaya, I.D. Ukraintseva, N.G. & Drozdov, I.D. 2002. Canada. In: Proc. Fifth inter. conf. on permafrost, A digital database on massive ground ice of Arctic. Trondheim: 224–229. Norway: Tapir Publishers. Vestnik MGU. Geography.5 (3): 7–13. (in Russian). Pollard, W.H. & Bell, T. 1998. Massive ice formation in Vtyurin, B.I. 1975. Ground Ice of the USSR. Moscow: the Eureka Sound lowlands: a landscape model. In Nauka Press (in Russian).

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