The catastrophic thermokarst lake drainage events of 2018 in northwestern Alaska: fast-forward into the future

Nitze, Ingmar; Cooley, Sarah W.; Duguay, Claude R.; Jones, Benjamin M.; Grosse, Guido

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4279-2020

Articles | Volume 14, issue 12

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4279-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4279-2020

© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 14, issue 12

Research article

| Highlight paper

|

01 Dec 2020

Research article | Highlight paper |

| 01 Dec 2020

The catastrophic thermokarst lake drainage events of 2018 in northwestern Alaska: fast-forward into the future

Ingmar Nitze, Sarah W. Cooley, Claude R. Duguay, Benjamin M. Jones, and Guido Grosse

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Final revised paper (published on 01 Dec 2020)
Supplement to the final revised paper
Preprint (discussion started on 08 May 2020)
Supplement to the preprint

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Comments on manuscript tc-2020-106-manuscript-version2.pdf by Nitze et al.', D.K. Swanson, 18 Jun 2020
- AC1: 'Author comments to reviewer #1 (DK Swanson)', Ingmar Nitze, 10 Aug 2020
RC2: 'Review: The catastrophic thermokarst lake drainage event of 2018 in northwestern Alaska: Fast-forward into the future', Anonymous Referee #2, 20 Jul 2020
- AC2: 'Author comments to reviewer #2', Ingmar Nitze, 10 Aug 2020

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (25 Aug 2020) by Ketil Isaksen

AR by Ingmar Nitze on behalf of the Authors (26 Aug 2020) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (28 Sep 2020) by Ketil Isaksen

Short summary

In summer 2018, northwestern Alaska was affected by widespread lake drainage which strongly exceeded previous observations. We analyzed the spatial and temporal patterns with remote sensing observations, weather data and lake-ice simulations. The preceding fall and winter season was the second warmest and wettest on record, causing the destabilization of permafrost and elevated water levels which likely led to widespread and rapid lake drainage during or right after ice breakup.