Articles | Volume 14, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4627-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-4627-2020
© Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
21 Dec 2020
Research article |
| 21 Dec 2020
| 21 Dec 2020
Numerical modelling of permafrost spring discharge and open-system pingo formation induced by basal permafrost aggradation
Department of Arctic Geology, The University Centre in Svalbard
(UNIS), 9171 Longyearbyen, Norway
Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University
of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark
Center for Permafrost, University of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark
Andrew Jonathan Hodson
Department of Arctic Geology, The University Centre in Svalbard
(UNIS), 9171 Longyearbyen, Norway
Department of Environmental Sciences, Western Norway University of
Applied Sciences, 6856 Sogndal, Norway
Søren Jessen
Department of Geosciences and Natural Resource Management, University
of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark
Victor Bense
Department of Environmental Sciences, Wageningen University, 6708PB
Wageningen, the Netherlands
Kim Senger
Department of Arctic Geology, The University Centre in Svalbard
(UNIS), 9171 Longyearbyen, Norway
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In this review article we present Svalbard’s unique geological archive, revealing its climate history over the last 540 million years. We uncover how this Arctic region recorded key global events, including the End-Permian Mass Extinction, and climate crises like the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. The overall climate trend recorded in sedimentary successions in Svalbard is discussed in the context of global climate fluctuations and continuous drift of Svalbard from near equatorial to Arctic latitudes.
Mostafa Gomaa Daoud, Fakhereh Alidoost, Yijian Zeng, Bart Schilperoort, Christiaan Van der Tol, Maciek W. Lubczynski, Mhd Suhyb Salama, Eric D. Morway, Christian D. Langevin, Prajwal Khanal, Zengjing Song, Lianyu Yu, Hong Zhao, Gualbert Oude Essink, Victor F. Bense, Michiel van der Molen, and Zhongbo Su
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This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Hydrology and Earth System Sciences (HESS).
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Rafael Kenji Horota, Christian Haug Eide, Kim Senger, Marius Opsanger Jonassen, and Marie Annette Vander Kloet
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Kim Senger, Grace Shephard, Fenna Ammerlaan, Owen Anfinson, Pascal Audet, Bernard Coakley, Victoria Ershova, Jan Inge Faleide, Sten-Andreas Grundvåg, Rafael Kenji Horota, Karthik Iyer, Julian Janocha, Morgan Jones, Alexander Minakov, Margaret Odlum, Anna Sartell, Andrew Schaeffer, Daniel Stockli, Marie Annette Vander Kloet, and Carmen Gaina
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The article describes a course that we have developed at the University Centre in Svalbard that covers many aspects of Arctic geology. The students experience this course through a wide range of lecturers, focussing both on the small and larger scales and covering many geoscientific disciplines.
Steven Reinaldo Rusli, Victor F. Bense, Syed M. T. Mustafa, and Albrecht H. Weerts
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 28, 5107–5131, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5107-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-28-5107-2024, 2024
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Peter Betlem, Thomas Birchall, Gareth Lord, Simon Oldfield, Lise Nakken, Kei Ogata, and Kim Senger
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We present the digitalisation (i.e. textured outcrop and terrain models) of the Agardhfjellet Fm. cliffs exposed in Konusdalen West, Svalbard, which forms the seal of a carbon capture site in Longyearbyen, where several boreholes cover the exposed interval. Outcrop data feature centimetre-scale accuracies and a maximum resolution of 8 mm and have been correlated with the boreholes through structural–stratigraphic annotations that form the basis of various numerical modelling scenarios.
Kim Senger, Denise Kulhanek, Morgan T. Jones, Aleksandra Smyrak-Sikora, Sverre Planke, Valentin Zuchuat, William J. Foster, Sten-Andreas Grundvåg, Henning Lorenz, Micha Ruhl, Kasia K. Sliwinska, Madeleine L. Vickers, and Weimu Xu
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Geologists can decipher the past climates and thus better understand how future climate change may affect the Earth's complex systems. In this paper, we report on a workshop held in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, to better understand how rocks in Svalbard (an Arctic archipelago) can be used to quantify major climatic shifts recorded in the past.
Thomas Goelles, Tobias Hammer, Stefan Muckenhuber, Birgit Schlager, Jakob Abermann, Christian Bauer, Víctor J. Expósito Jiménez, Wolfgang Schöner, Markus Schratter, Benjamin Schrei, and Kim Senger
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We propose a newly developed modular MObile LIdar SENsor System (MOLISENS) to enable new applications for small industrial light detection and ranging (lidar) sensors. MOLISENS supports both monitoring of dynamic processes and mobile mapping applications. The mobile mapping application of MOLISENS has been tested under various conditions, and results are shown from two surveys in the Lurgrotte cave system in Austria and a glacier cave in Longyearbreen on Svalbard.
Alessandro Montemagno, Christophe Hissler, Victor Bense, Adriaan J. Teuling, Johanna Ziebel, and Laurent Pfister
Biogeosciences, 19, 3111–3129, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3111-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-19-3111-2022, 2022
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We investigated the biogeochemical processes that dominate the release and retention of elements (nutrients and potentially toxic elements) during litter degradation. Our results show that toxic elements are retained in the litter, while nutrients are released in solution during the first stages of degradation. This seems linked to the capability of trees to distribute the elements between degradation-resistant and non-degradation-resistant compounds of leaves according to their chemical nature.
Armin Dachauer, Richard Hann, and Andrew J. Hodson
The Cryosphere, 15, 5513–5528, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5513-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-5513-2021, 2021
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This study investigated the aerodynamic roughness length (z0) – an important parameter to determine the surface roughness – of crevassed tidewater glaciers on Svalbard using drone data. The results point out that the range of z0 values across a crevassed glacier is large but in general significantly higher compared to non-crevassed glacier surfaces. The UAV approach proved to be an ideal tool to provide distributed z0 estimates of crevassed glaciers which can be used to model turbulent fluxes.
Kim Senger, Peter Betlem, Sten-Andreas Grundvåg, Rafael Kenji Horota, Simon John Buckley, Aleksandra Smyrak-Sikora, Malte Michel Jochmann, Thomas Birchall, Julian Janocha, Kei Ogata, Lilith Kuckero, Rakul Maria Johannessen, Isabelle Lecomte, Sara Mollie Cohen, and Snorre Olaussen
Geosci. Commun., 4, 399–420, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-4-399-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-4-399-2021, 2021
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At UNIS, located at 78° N in Longyearbyen in Arctic Norway, we use digital outcrop models (DOMs) actively in a new course (
AG222 Integrated Geological Methods: From Outcrop To Geomodel) to solve authentic geoscientific challenges. DOMs are shared through the open-access Svalbox geoscientific portal, along with 360° imagery, subsurface data and published geoscientific data from Svalbard. Here we share experiences from the AG222 course and Svalbox, both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Thomas Birchall, Malte Jochmann, Peter Betlem, Kim Senger, Andrew Hodson, and Snorre Olaussen
The Cryosphere Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-226, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-2021-226, 2021
Preprint withdrawn
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Svalbard has over a century of drilling history, though this historical data is largely overlooked nowadays. After inspecting this data, stored in local archives, we noticed the surprisingly common phenomenon of gas trapped below the permafrost. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and the Arctic is warming at unprecedented rates. The permafrost is the last barrier preventing this gas from escaping into the atmosphere and if it thaws it risks a feedback effect to the already warming climate.
Jeffrey M. McKenzie, Barret L. Kurylyk, Michelle A. Walvoord, Victor F. Bense, Daniel Fortier, Christopher Spence, and Christophe Grenier
The Cryosphere, 15, 479–484, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-479-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-15-479-2021, 2021
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Groundwater is an underappreciated catalyst of environmental change in a warming Arctic. We provide evidence of how changing groundwater systems underpin surface changes in the north, and we argue for research and inclusion of cryohydrogeology, the study of groundwater in cold regions.
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Short summary
In Arctic fjord valleys, considerable amounts of methane may be stored below the permafrost and escape directly to the atmosphere through springs. A new conceptual model of how such springs form and persist is presented and confirmed by numerical modelling experiments: in uplifted Arctic valleys, freezing pressure induced at the permafrost base can drive the flow of groundwater to the surface through vents in frozen ground. This deserves attention as an emission pathway for greenhouse gasses.
In Arctic fjord valleys, considerable amounts of methane may be stored below the permafrost and...
