What and where are periglacial landscapes?

Murton, Julian B.

doi:10.1002/ppp.2102

Cited by 34 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 148 publications

(293 reference statements)

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“…Periglacial landscapes are widespread in northern high latitudes and are affected by specific cold-region physical weathering, sediment production, transport and deposition (Murton, 2021). Understanding periglacial deposition and associated landscape and permafrost dynamics on long and short timescales is important for the interpretation of currently ongoing rapid changes in permafrost regions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heavy and Light Mineral Association of Late Quaternary Permafrost Deposits in Northeastern Siberia

et al. 2022

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We studied heavy and light mineral associations from two grain-size fractions (63–125 μm, 125–250 µm) from 18 permafrost sites in the northern Siberian Arctic in order to differentiate local versus regional source areas of permafrost aggradation on the late Quaternary time scale. The stratigraphic context of the studied profiles spans about 200 ka covering the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 7 to MIS 1. Heavy and light mineral grains are mostly angular, subangular or slightly rounded in the studied permafrost sediments. Only grains from sediments with significantly longer transport distances show higher degrees of rounding. Differences in the varying heavy and light mineral associations represent varying sediment sources, frost weathering processes, transport mechanisms, and post-sedimentary soil formation processes of the deposits of distinct cryostratigraphic units. We summarized the results of 1141 microscopic mineral analyses of 486 samples in mean values for the respective cryostratigraphic units. We compared the mineral associations of all 18 sites along the Laptev Sea coast, in the Lena Delta, and on the New Siberian Archipelago to each other and used analysis of variance and cluster analysis to characterize the differences and similarities among mineral associations. The mineral associations of distinct cryostratigraphic units within several studied profiles differ significantly, while others do not. Significant differences between sites as well as between single cryostratigraphic units at an individual site exist in mineral associations, heavy mineral contents, and mineral coefficients. Thus, each study site shows individual, location-specific mineral association. The mineral records originate from multiple locations covering a large spatial range and show that ratios of heavy and light mineral loads remained rather stable over time, including glacial and interglacial periods. This suggests mostly local sediment sources and highlights the importance of sediment reworking under periglacial regimes through time, including for example the formation of MIS 1 thermokarst and thermo-erosional deposits based on remobilized MIS 3 and 2 Yedoma Ice Complex deposits. Based on the diverse mineralogical results our study supports the viewpoint that Yedoma Ice Complex deposits are mainly results of local and polygenetic formations (including local aeolian relocation) superimposed by cryogenic weathering and varying climate conditions rather than exclusive long distance aeolian transport of loess, which would have highly homogenized the deposits across large regions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heavy and Light Mineral Association of Late Quaternary Permafrost Deposits in Northeastern Siberia

et al. 2022

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“…This also affected the extent of cryotic conditions in the periglacial environment (e.g. Murton, 2021), i.e., the distribution of permafrost, which currently covers 22% of the northern hemisphere land (Obu et al, 2019). While temperatures during the Holocene were significantly higher than during the Last Glacial period, the retreat of glaciers and the follow-up elastic rebound and exposure of new land in the Arctic and the sub-Arctic environment allowed freezing and the aggradation of permafrost (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Permafrost saline water and Early to Mid-Holocene permafrost aggradation in Svalbard

Rotem

Lyakhovsky

Christiansen³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Abstract. Deglaciation in Svalbard was followed-up by seawater ingression and the deposition of marine (deltaic) sediments in fjord valleys, while elastic rebound resulted in fast land uplift and the exposure of these sediment to the atmosphere, therefore the formation of epigenetic permafrost. This was then followed by the accumulation of aeolian sediments, which froze syngenetically. The permafrost was drilled in the east Adventdalen valley, Svalbard, 3–4 km from the maximum up-valley reach of post-deglaciation seawater ingression, and its ground ice was measured for chemistry. While ground ice in the syngenetic part is basically fresh the epigenetic part reveals a frozen fresh-saline water interface (FSI), with chloride concentrations increasing from the top of the epigenetic part (depth of 5.5 m) to about 15 % that of seawater at 11 m. We applied a one-dimensional freezing model in order to examine the rate of top-down permafrost aggradation, which could accommodate with the observed frozen FSI. The model examined permafrost development under different scenarios of mean average air temperature, water-freezing temperature and the degree of pore-water freezing. We found that even at the relatively high temperatures of the Early to mid-Holocene, permafrost could aggrade quite fast, e.g. down to 15 to 33 m in 200 years, therefore allowing freezing of the fresh-saline water interface despite of the relatively fast rebound rate and the resultant increase in topographic gradients toward the sea. This could be aided by non-complete pore water freezing, which possibly lead to slightly faster aggradation, resulting in the freezing of the entire marine section at that location (23 m) within less than 200 years. We conclude that freezing should have occurred immediately after the exposure of the marine sediment to atmospheric conditions.

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“…Permafrost is an amplifier of climate change 1 , 2 , emitting CO 2 and CH 4 from bacterial carbon degradation as permafrost thaws 3 , and providing nutrients and carbon to aquatic ecosystems 4 , 5 . But evidence of permafrost in the pre-Quaternary geological record (‘deep time’) is limited, as is geological evidence of continental ice during supergreenhouse periods.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Permafrost in the Cretaceous supergreenhouse

Rodríguez‐López

Vishnivetskaya

et al. 2022

Nat Commun

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Earth’s climate during the last 4.6 billion years has changed repeatedly between cold (icehouse) and warm (greenhouse) conditions. The hottest conditions (supergreenhouse) are widely assumed to have lacked an active cryosphere. Here we show that during the archetypal supergreenhouse Cretaceous Earth, an active cryosphere with permafrost existed in Chinese plateau deserts (astrochonological age ca. 132.49–132.17 Ma), and that a modern analogue for these plateau cryospheric conditions is the aeolian–permafrost system we report from the Qiongkuai Lebashi Lake area, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China. Significantly, Cretaceous plateau permafrost was coeval with largely marine cryospheric indicators in the Arctic and Australia, indicating a strong coupling of the ocean–atmosphere system. The Cretaceous permafrost contained a rich microbiome at subtropical palaeolatitude and 3–4 km palaeoaltitude, analogous to recent permafrost in the western Himalayas. A mindset of persistent ice-free greenhouse conditions during the Cretaceous has stifled consideration of permafrost thaw as a contributor of C and nutrients to the palaeo-oceans and palaeo-atmosphere.

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What and where are periglacial landscapes?

Cited by 34 publications

References 148 publications

Heavy and Light Mineral Association of Late Quaternary Permafrost Deposits in Northeastern Siberia

Heavy and Light Mineral Association of Late Quaternary Permafrost Deposits in Northeastern Siberia

Permafrost saline water and Early to Mid-Holocene permafrost aggradation in Svalbard

Permafrost in the Cretaceous supergreenhouse

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