Articles | Volume 17, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-4511-2023
© Author(s) 2023. 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-17-4511-2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
30 Oct 2023
Research article |
| 30 Oct 2023
| 30 Oct 2023
Allometric scaling of retrogressive thaw slumps
Jurjen van der Sluijs
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Northwest Territories Centre for Geomatics, Department of Finance, Government of Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, NWT, X1A 2L9, Canada
Steven V. Kokelj
Northwest Territories Geological Survey, Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment, Government of Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, NWT, X1A 2L9, Canada
Jon F. Tunnicliffe
School of Environment, University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
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Our study explores how thawing permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau triggers landslides, mobilising stored carbon. Using satellite data from 2011 to 2020, we measured soil erosion, ice loss, and carbon mobilisation. While current impacts are modest, increasing landslide activity suggests future significance. This research underscores the need to understand permafrost thaw's role in carbon dynamics and climate change.
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Climate-driven landslides are transforming glacially conditioned permafrost terrain, coupling slopes with aquatic systems, and triggering a cascade of downstream effects. Nonlinear intensification of thawing slopes is primarily affecting headwater systems where slope sediment yields overwhelm stream transport capacity. The propagation of effects across watershed scales indicates that western Arctic Canada will be an interconnected hotspot of thaw-driven change through the coming millennia.
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Our study explores how thawing permafrost on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau triggers landslides, mobilising stored carbon. Using satellite data from 2011 to 2020, we measured soil erosion, ice loss, and carbon mobilisation. While current impacts are modest, increasing landslide activity suggests future significance. This research underscores the need to understand permafrost thaw's role in carbon dynamics and climate change.
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Roads on permafrost have significant environmental effects. This study assessed the Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk Highway (ITH) in Canada and its impact on snow accumulation, albedo and snowmelt timing. Our findings revealed that snow accumulation increased by up to 36 m from the road, 12-day earlier snowmelt within 100 m due to reduced albedo, and altered snowmelt patterns in seemingly undisturbed areas. Remote sensing aids in understanding road impacts on permafrost.
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Climate-driven landslides are transforming glacially conditioned permafrost terrain, coupling slopes with aquatic systems, and triggering a cascade of downstream effects. Nonlinear intensification of thawing slopes is primarily affecting headwater systems where slope sediment yields overwhelm stream transport capacity. The propagation of effects across watershed scales indicates that western Arctic Canada will be an interconnected hotspot of thaw-driven change through the coming millennia.
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Permafrost beneath tundra near Lac de Gras (Northwest Territories, Canada) contains more ice and less organic carbon than shown in global compilations. Excess-ice content of 20–60 %, likely remnant Laurentide basal ice, is found in upland till. This study is based on 24 boreholes up to 10 m deep. Findings highlight geology and glacial legacy as determinants of a mosaic of permafrost characteristics with potential for thaw subsidence up to several metres in some locations.
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High-latitude warming thaws permafrost, exposing minerals to weathering and fluvial transport. We studied the effects of abrupt thaw and associated weathering on carbon cycling in western Canada. Permafrost collapse affected < 1 % of the landscape yet enabled carbonate weathering associated with CO2 degassing in headwaters and increased bicarbonate export across watershed scales. Weathering may become a driver of carbon cycling in ice- and mineral-rich permafrost terrain across the Arctic.
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Ward Jones, M. K., Pollard, W. H., and Jones, B. M.: Rapid initialization of retrogressive thaw slumps in the Canadian high Arctic and their response to climate and terrain factors, Environ. Res. Lett., 14, 055006, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ab12fd, 2019.
Xia, Z., Huang, L., Fan, C., Jia, S., Lin, Z., Liu, L., Luo, J., Niu, F., and Zhang, T.: Retrogressive thaw slumps along the Qinghai–Tibet Engineering Corridor: a comprehensive inventory and their distribution characteristics, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 14, 3875–3887, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-3875-2022, 2022.
Zwieback, S., Kokelj, S. V., Günther, F., Boike, J., Grosse, G., and Hajnsek, I.: Sub-seasonal thaw slump mass wasting is not consistently energy limited at the landscape scale, The Cryosphere, 12, 549–564, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-549-2018, 2018.
Short summary
There is an urgent need to obtain size and erosion estimates of climate-driven landslides, such as retrogressive thaw slumps. We evaluated surface interpolation techniques to estimate slump erosional volumes and developed a new inventory method by which the size and activity of these landslides are tracked through time. Models between slump area and volume reveal non-linear intensification, whereby model coefficients improve our understanding of how permafrost landscapes may evolve over time.
There is an urgent need to obtain size and erosion estimates of climate-driven landslides, such...
