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Cryogeochemical Model of Tabular Ground Ice and Cryopegs, Yamal Peninsula, Russia

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Cryogeochemical Model of Tabular Ground Ice and Cryopegs, Yamal Peninsula, Russia Permafrost, Phillips, Springman & Arenson (eds) © 2003 Swets & Zeitlinger, Lisse, ISBN 90 5809 582 7 Cryogeochemical model of tabular ground ice and cryopegs, Yamal Peninsula, Russia I.D. Streletskaya Moscow State University, Faculty of Geography, Moscow, Russia M.O. Leibman Earth Cryosphere Institute SB RAS ABSTRACT: The Quaternary section at the central Yamal Peninsula is very often represented by four main components (from top downward): (1) clayey sediments, (2) tabular ground ice, and (3) sandy sediments with (4) lenses of cryopegs. Cryogeochemical units are distinguished based on the cryogeochemical properties of these components and the system as a whole. The relations between units suggest that the section with constitutional and tabular ground ice and cryopegs formed during the epigenetic freezing of a sequence of marine clay and underlying sandy aquifer on land or at shoals after marine regression. Cryopegs are formed at the clay-sand inter- face during tabular ground ice formation by expulsion of brines. Thus, cryopegs are residual brines within permafrost resulting from the formation of tabular ground ice. 1 INTRODUCTION Chemical analyses of tabular ground ice in the marine sediments of the Yamal Peninsula are summa- Previous publications by the authors describe a geo- rized by Fotiev (1999) and Dubikov (2002). Chemical chemical approach to study tabular ground ice at the analysis of tabular ice of the Canadian North is dis- central Yamal Peninsula (Fig. 1) in order to develop cussed by Mackay (1971, 1983, 1985) and Kato et al. a “cryogeochemical model” of its formation (1986, 1988). (Streletskaya 1991a, b, Leibman 1996, Leibman & The existence of a sandy aquifer below tabular ice Streletskaya 1996, Streletskaya & Leibman 2002). and a clayey aquiclude above this ice, as well as the Analysis of the published and archived geological combination of tabular ice with cryopegs in the sec- data indicates that lenses of mineralized confined tion, suggests that a genetic relation exists between groundwater (cryopegs) in the sections are often those components (tabular ice, cryopegs, and hosting found beneath the tabular ground ice. Such sections sand and clay). are encountered at several river valleys: Se-Yakha- Based on the analysis of the position of saline Mutnaya (Baulin et al. 1996), Neroma-Yakha, and deposits, ice layers, and cryopeg lenses in the section, Ngerm-Lymbad’yakha (Leibman et al. 1991), and at as well as on their geochemical composition, the Lake Voingut-To (Tarasov 1990). authors suggest a cryogeochemical model of tabular ice formation by segregation or complex (intrusion- segregation) mechanism. 2 APPROACH TO THE CRYOGEOCHEMICAL MODELING OF TABULAR ICE FORMATION 2.1 Cryohydrogeochemical characteristics of the study region Quaternary deposits on the Yamal Peninsula are saline northward of 68°N, where permafrost did not degrade during the Holocene optimum. Therefore permafrost bearing sediments enclosing tabular ice are character- ized by salinities typical of their initial sedimentary environments. This is supported by the presence of salts in proportions typical of ocean environments (Dubikov 2002, Solomatin & Konyakhin 1997). Figure 1. The central Yamal Peninsula. I-I A schematic Cryopegs and layers with increased salinity were geological transect presented on Figure 2. repeatedly observed beneath the tabular ice at Central 1111 Yamal (Baulin et al. 1996, Dubikov 2002, Leibman et al. levels typical of the region under study: the flood- 1991, Streletskaya 1991a, b, Tarasov 1990). plains (a, alIV), the second fluvial (aIII-IV), and the The salinity of the cryopeg changes from about 20 third marine (mIII1) terraces (Fig. 2). The unit of the to 80 g/l in the case of a chloride-sodium chemical Quaternary sediments analyzed has a thickness of composition. The wide range of salinity indicates var- about 100 m and contains tabular ice bodies of more ious degrees of cryogenic metamorphization of the than 40 m thick, overlain by clayey sediments. Tabular initial water. Examples of ionic composition are given ice overlies the sequence of sand and silty sand with a in Table 1. thickness of 30–40 m, grading downward to clayey deposits at the base of the section. Lenses of cryopegs are revealed at different depths in the sandy sequence. 2.2 Cryolithological types of the sections The position of cryopeg lenses, either discovered by drilling, or inferred by the authors based on field expe- A schematic geological transect with cryopeg lenses rience and cryopeg formation concept (Streletskaya and tabular ice in Quaternary deposits compiled for 1998) is shown at the schematic transect. Central Yamal, across Mordy-Yakha, Se-Yakha, A complete sequence is found outside the river val- Naduj-Yakha rivers is shown on Figure 2. leys or in the younger portions of the valleys where tab- The schematic transect extends over a distance of ular ice has not thawed yet. In the mature valleys of more than 25 km, crossing all geomorphological large rivers, tabular ice has thawed completely, and, Table 1. Results of chemical analysis of continental atmospheric precipitation, surface water, ice melts from tabular ground ice (TGI), constitutional ice, cryopegs and the pore solution from the clay and sand. Ϫ 2Ϫ Ϫ ϩ ϩ 2ϩ 2ϩ Cl SO4 HCO3 Na ϩ K Ca Mg Salinity Sample source mg per liter mg-equivalent*percent Atmospheric precipitation (rain), 38 37.5 33.9 28.6 67.9 17.8 14.3 Se-Yakha river 29 Aug 1988 Snowbank, Se-Yakha river 04 Aug 1988 83 18.8 24.1 57.1 73.2 12.5 14.3 Se-Yakha river water 04 Sep 1990 210 12.3 8 79.7 73.2 15.4 6.3 Constitutional ice in clay 189 86.8 5.5 7.7 91.0 6.4 2.6 Pore solution in clay 2 m above TGI 40792 93.8 5.4 2.3 95.0 1.7 2.7 Pore solution in clay 0.2 m above TGI 20542 84.4 9.9 5.7 94.8 1.7 3.5 Ice melts from TGI 78 56.7 30.0 13.3 81.7 13.3 5.0 Cryopeg under TGI 58507 98.5 1.5 no 37.1 31.1 31.8 Pore solution in sand below TGI 2407 39.6 30.7 29.7 50.5 29.7 19.8 Sea water 35000 90 9 1 79 3 18 Figure 2. A schematic geological transect with cryopeg lenses and tabular ice in Quaternary deposits: 1, sand; 2, clay; 3, sand, silt, clay interbedding; 4, tabular ground ice; 5, lenses of cryopegs: a, validated b, predicted; gm, m II2–4 – glacial- marine and marine Middle Pleistocene deposits; mIII1 – marine Late Pleistocene (Eemian) deposits, aIII-IV – fluvial Late Pleistocene – Holocene deposits; aIV, alIV – fluvial and fluvial-lacustrine Holocene deposits. 1112 therefore, this unit is not found in the geological sec- Sand starts freezing when, as a result of natural con- tion. In some sections, cryopegs have not been observed vection, salts migrate downward and the pore solution below tabular ice, however, they may still be present. concentration begins to correspond to the freezing temperature. Expelled brines are fixed in the form of closed lenses including water-soluble salts with low 2.3 Cryohydrochemical characteristics of eutectic temperature. That is why the concentration of the sections ions in frozen sand is substantially lower than it was in the pore solution before freezing. Cryopeg lenses are, Several sections at the watershed of the Se-Yakha and as a rule, confined to the lower portions of sandy layer, Mordy-Yakha rivers were analyzed. The salinity of which also indicates that the sediments froze from the melted tabular ice here ranges from 26 to 176 mg/l top downward. Subsequently, cryopegs change as the depending on ice transparency, and from constitu- temperature field evolves. tional ice in the overlying deposits it reaches 226 mg/l (Leibman 1996). At the Eemian marine terrace along the right bank of 3 CRYOHYDROCHEMICAL MODEL OF the Naduj-Yakha River, tabular ice is overlain by saline TABULAR ICE FORMATION AT THE clayey sediments, 2–10 m thick, with thick layered CENTRAL YAMAL PENINSULA cryogenic structure. Confined sodium chloride ground- water has been discovered below the tabular ice more The authors propose the following cryohydrochemi- than 10 m thick. The pore solution salinity of the clayey cal model of epigenetic freezing of marine sandy-clay sediments which form blocks surrounded by the ice sediments, accompanied by the tabular ice formation. lenses, at 0.24 moisture content of clay is 40792 mg/l Groundwater, originating from the seawater diluted farther from tabular ice body, and 20542mg/l closer to by atmospheric precipitation and surface waters, is the it (Dubikov 2002). The salinity of tabular ice melts is source water for large bodies of tabular ice. Concen- no more than 78 mg/l, whereas that of the underlying trated brines form lenses of cryopegs. Freezing starts water in cryopeg reaches 58507 mg/l (Table 1). The when the surface of the transgressive sequence of sed- sand beneath the tabular ice at a depth of 28 m with the iments appears above the water level or at least in the moisture content of 0.27 has pore solution salinity zone of subsea freezing within shoals. Tabular ice higher than 2200 mg/l (Solomatin & Konyakhin 1997). forms at the sand-clay interface under the conditions Data in Table 1 indicate that the ionic composition of relatively stable and high negative temperature. structure of pore solutions in clay and constitutional ice Overlying clay can be unfrozen, but cryotic (below 0°C), is close to that of seawater. When comparing the ionic and for this reason there is an interchange of ions and composition of the tabular ice melts, pore solution in lithogenic material between clay and tabular ice underlying sand, and cryopegs, one can see that the observed in the contact zone.
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