Seasonal Electrical Resistivity Surveys of a Coastal Bluff, Barter Island, North Slope Alaska

Abstract

Select coastal regions of the North Slope of Alaska are experiencing high erosion rates that can be attributed in part to recent warming trends and associated increased storm intensity and frequency. The upper sediment column of the coastal North Slope of Alaska can be described as continuous permafrost underlying a thin (typically less than 1–2 m) active layer that responds variably to seasonal thaw cycles. Assessing the temporal and spatial variability of the active layer and underlying permafrost is essential to better constrain how heightened erosion may impact material fluxes to the atmosphere and the coastal ocean, and how enhanced thaw cycles may impact the stability of the coastal bluffs. In this study, multi-channel electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) was used to image shallow subsurface features of a coastal bluff west of Kaktovik, on Barter Island, northeast Alaska. A comparison of a suite of paired resistivity surveys conducted in early and late summer 2014 provided detailed information on how the active layer and permafrost are impacted during the short Arctic summer. Such results are useful in the development of coastal resilience models that tie together fluvial, terrestrial, climatic, geologic, and oceanographic forcings on shoreline stability.

Thermokarst Lake to Lagoon Transitions in Eastern Siberia: Do Submerged Taliks Refreeze?

“…(1989). ERT has also been used to detect seasonal permafrost changes of coastal bluffs (Swarzenski et al., 2016), the impacts of deep lateral seawater intrusions on coastal permafrost degradation (Kasprzak et al., 2017), and thermokarst lake taliks (You et al., 2017). In summer, six surveys with floating electrodes were carried out using an IRIS TM Syscal Pro Deep Marine system and a 48 V transmitter.…”

“…Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) with floating electrodes has shown to be an effective technique to detect the top of IBP in saline or brackish waters as demonstrated by Angelopoulos et al (2019), Overduin et al (2012Overduin et al ( , 2016, and Sellmann et al (1989). ERT has also been used to detect seasonal permafrost changes of coastal bluffs (Swarzenski et al, 2016), the impacts of deep lateral seawater intrusions on coastal permafrost degradation (Kasprzak et al, 2017), and thermokarst lake taliks (You et al, 2017). In summer, six surveys with floating electrodes were carried out using an IRIS TM Syscal Pro Deep Marine system and a 48 V transmitter.…”

Absence of ice-bonded permafrost beneath an Arctic lagoon revealed by electrical geophysics

“…Our results do not show values that are reflective of massive ice or ice-bonded permafrost (8,9,20,22,(24)(25)(26)(27). The absence of ice-bonded permafrost within the lagoon and along the coast, even below the known ice in the case of transect C5, implies that the unfrozen, water-saturated substrate under the lagoon continues under the thin ice-bonded permafrost body (Fig.…”

“…Coastal and offshore applications of electrical resistivity imaging (ERI) have emerged as a promising cost-effective geophysical method that can readily provide horizontally continuous and depthresolved images of the electrical properties of the subsurface (19,20). ERI injects electrical current into the subsurface through a series of electrodes while simultaneously measuring the electrical potential field.…”

Towards determining spatial methane distribution on Arctic permafrost bluffs with an unmanned aerial system

“…Our study was carried out along the coastal bluff environment of Barter Island, AK, which is part of a larger Arctic coastal erosion investigation study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS; i.e. [28][29][30]).…”