References

The Cryosphere

1994-0424

Copernicus Publications

Göttingen, Germany

10.5194/tc-5-13-2011

Spatial distribution of pingos in northern Asia

Grosse

¹ Jones

B. M.

² ¹

Geophysical Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA

US Geological Survey, Alaska Science Center, USA

07 01 2011

5 1 13 33

2011

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

This article is available from https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/5/13/2011/tc-5-13-2011.html

The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/5/13/2011/tc-5-13-2011.pdf

Pingos are prominent periglacial landforms in vast regions of the Arctic and Subarctic. They are indicators of modern and past conditions of permafrost, surface geology, hydrology and climate. A first version of a detailed spatial geodatabase of 6059 pingo locations in a 3.5×10<sup>6</sup> km<sup>2</sup> region of northern Asia was assembled from topographic maps. A first order analysis was carried out with respect to permafrost, landscape characteristics, surface geology, hydrology, climate, and elevation datasets using a Geographic Information System (GIS). Pingo heights in the dataset vary between 2 and 37 m, with a mean height of 4.8 m. About 64% of the pingos occur in continuous permafrost with high ice content and thick sediments; another 19% in continuous permafrost with moderate ice content and thick sediments. The majority of these pingos are likely hydrostatic pingos, which are typical of those located in drained thermokarst lake basins of northern lowlands with continuous permafrost. About 82% of the pingos are located in the tundra bioclimatic zone. Most pingos in the dataset are located in regions with mean annual ground temperatures between −3 and −11 °C and mean annual air temperatures between −7 and −18 °C. The dataset confirms that surface geology and hydrology are key factors for pingo formation and occurrence. Based on model predictions for near-future permafrost distribution, about 2073 pingos (34%) along the southern margins of permafrost will be located in regions with thawing permafrost by 2100, which ultimately may lead to increased occurrence of pingo collapse. Based on our dataset and previously published estimates of pingo numbers from other regions, we conclude that there are more than 11 000 pingos on Earth.

References 1

Andreev, V. N.: Gidrolakkolity (bulgunnyakhi) v zapadno-sibirskykh tundrakh [Hydrolakkoliths (Bulgunnyakhs) in the west Siberian tundra], Isv. Russk. Geogr. Ob-va., 68(2), 1936 (in Russian).

Bobov, N. G.: Pingo formations under modern conditions in the watershed between the Lena and Vilyui Rivers, Geographical Series, Academy of the Sciences of the USSR, 5, 64–68, 1960. (in Russian)

Brown, R. J. E. and Pewe, T. L.: Distribution of permafrost in North America and its relationship to the environment – A review 1963–1973, in: The North American Contribution to the Second International Conference of Permafrost, Yakutsk, U.S.S.R., 71–100, 13–28 July 1973.

Brown, J., Ferrians, O. J., Heginbottom, J. A., and Melnikov, E.: Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground-Ice Conditions, in: Circumpolar Active-Layer Permafrost System, Version 2.0, edited by: Parsons, M. and Zhang, T., International Permafrost Association Standing Committee on Data Information and Communication (comp.), 2003, National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology, Boulder, CO, CD-ROM, 1998.

Carter, L. D. and Galloway, J. P.: Arctic Coastal Plain pingos in National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, in: The United States Geological Survey in Alaska – Accomplishments during 1978, edited by: Johnson, K. M. and Williams, J. K., US Geological Survey Circular, 804-B, 33–35, 1979.

Craig, B. G.: Pingo in the Thelon Valley, Northwest Territories; Radio-carbon age and historical significance of the contained organic material, Geol. Soc. Am. Bull., 70, 509–510, 1959.

Ehlers, J. and Gibbard, P. L.: Extent and chronology of glaciations, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 22, 1561–1568, 2003.

Ershov, E. D., Kondrateeva, K. A., Loginov, V. F., and Sytchev, I. K.: Geocyological map of the Soviet Union [Geokryologitcheskaya karta SSSR], Scale 1:2 500 000, Moscow State University, 1991.

Esper Angillieri, M. Y.: A preliminary inventory of rock glaciers at 30° S latitude, Cordillera Frontal of San Juan, Argentina, Quatern. Int., 195, 151–157, 2009.

Evseev, V. P.: Pingos of segregated ice in the northeast of the European part of the U.S.S.R in Western Siberia, Problemy Kriolitologii, 5, 95–159, 1976 (in Russian).

Ferrians Jr., O. J.: Pingos on the Arctic Coastal Plain, northeastern Alaska, in: Fourth International Conference on Permafrost, Fairbanks, Alaska, University of Alaska, 105–106, 18–22 July 1983.

Ferrians Jr., O. J.: Pingos in Alaska: A review, in: Fifth International Conference on Permafrost, Norway, 734–739, 1988.

Flemal, R. C.: Pingos and pingo scars: Their characteristics, distribution, and utility in reconstructing former permafrost environments, Quaternary Res., 6, 37–53, 1976.

French, H. M.: Pingo investigations, Banks Island, District of Franklin, Geological Survey of Canada, 76-1A, 235–238, 1976.

French, H. M.: Past and present permafrost as an indicator of climate change, Polar Res., 18, 269–274, 1999.

Galloway, J. P. and Carter, L. D.: Preliminary map of pingos in National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 78-795, 1 sheet, scale 1:500,000, 1978.

GLOBE Task Team: The Global Land One-kilometer Base Elevation (GLOBE) Digital Elevation Model, Version 1.0, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Geophysical Data Center, Boulder, Colorado, USA, 1999.

Grave, N. A.: On the archaeological dating of hydrolaccoliths on the Chukotka Peninsula, Dokl. Akad. Nauk, 106, 706–707, 1956 (in Russian).

Grosse, G., Schirrmeister, L., and Malthus, T. J.: Application of Landsat-7 satellite data and a DEM for the quantification of thermokarst-affected terrain types in the periglacial Lena-Anabar coastal lowland, Polar Res., 25, 51–67, 2006.

Grosse, G., Schirrmeister, L., Siegert, C., Kunitsky, V. V., Slagoda, E. A., Andreev, A. A., and Dereviagyn, A. Y.: Geological and geomorphological evolution of a sedimentary periglacial landscape in Northeast Siberia during the Late Quaternary, Geomorphology, 86, 25–51, 2007.

Gurney, S. D.: Aspects of the genesis and geomorphology of pingos: perennial permafrost mounds, Prog. Phys. Geog., 22, 307–324, 1998.

Gurney, S. D.: Aspects of the genesis, geomorphology and terminology of palsas: perennial cryogenic mounds, Prog. Phys. Geog., 25, 249–260, 2001.

Hamilton, T. D. and Obi, C. M.: Pingos in the Brooks Range, Northern Alaska, USA, Arctic Alpine Res., 14, 13–20, 1982.

Harris, S. A.: Identification of permafrost zones using selected permafrost landforms, in: Proceedings of the fourth Canadian Permafrost Conference, 1982, 49–58, 1982.

Hinkel, K. M., Frohn, R. C., Nelson, F. E., Eisner, W. R., and Beck, R. A.: Morphometric and spatial analysis of thaw lakes and drained thaw lake basins in the Western Arctic Coastal Plain, Alaska, Permafrost Periglac., 16, 327–341, 2005.

Hinzman, L. D., Bettez, N. D., Bolton, W. R., Chapin, F. S., Dyurgerov, M. B., Fastie, C. L., Griffith, B., Hollister, R. D., Hope, A., Huntington, H. P., Jensen, A. M., Jia, G. J., Jorgenson, T., Kane, D. L., Klein, D. R., Kofinas, G., Lynch, A. H., Lloyd, A. H., McGuire, A. D., Nelson, F. E., Oechel, W. C., Osterkamp, T. E., Racine, C. H., Romanovsky, V. E., Stone, R. S., Stow, D. A., Sturm, M., Tweedie, C. E., Vourlitis, G. L., Walker, M. D., Walker, D. A., Webber, P. J., Welker, J. M., Winker, K. S., and Yoshikawa, K.: Evidence and Implications of Recent Climate Change in Northern Alaska and Other Arctic Regions, Climatic Change, 72, 251–298, 2005.

Holmes, G. H., Foster, H. L., and Hopkins, D. M.: Distribution and age of pingos of Interior Alaska, in: Proceedings Permafrost International Conference, N.R.C. Publication 1287, Washington, D.C., National Academy of Sciences, 88–93, 1966.

Holmes, G. W., Hopkins, D. M., and Foster, H.: Pingos in central Alaska, US Geological Survey Bulletin, 1241-H, Washington, H1–H40, 44 pages, 1968.

Hughes, O. L.: Distribution of open system pingos in central Yukon Territory with respect to glacial limits, Geological Survey of Canada, Paper 69-34, 1969.

Huijzer, B. and Vandenberghe, J.: Climatic reconstruction of the Weichselian Pleniglacial in northwestern and Central Europe, J. Quaternary Sci., 13, 391–417, 1998.

Isarin, R. F. B.: Permafrost distribution and temperatures in Europe during the Younger Dryas, Permafrost Periglac., 8, 313–333, 1997.

Jin, H. J., Chang, X. L., and Wang, S. L.: Evolution of permafrost on the Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet) Plateau since the end of the late Pleistocene, J. Geophys. Res., 112, F02S09, https://doi.org/10.1029/2006JF000521, 2007.

Jorgenson, T., Yoshikawa, K., Kanevskiy, M., Shur, Y., Romanovsky, V., Marchenko, S., Grosse, G., Brown, J., and Jones, B.: Permafrost characteristics of Alaska, in: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, Fairbanks, Alaska, 29 June–3 July 2008.

Kotlyakov, V. and Khromova, T.: Permafrost, Snow and Ice, in: Land Resources of Russia, Digital Media, edited by: Stolbovoi, V. and McCallum, I., International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the Russian Academy of Science, Laxenburg, Austria, 2002.

Lagerbäck, R. and Rohde, L.: Pingos in northernmost Sweden, Geogr. Ann. A, 67(3–4), 239–245, 1985.

Leffingwell, E. d. K.: The Canning River region, northern Alaska, in: United States Geological Survey Professional Paper 109, USGS, Washington, DC, 251, 1919.

Lehner, B. and Döll, P.: Development and validation of a global database of lakes, reservoirs and wetlands, J. Hydrol., 296, 1–22, 2004.

Lomborinchen, R.: Frost heaving and related landforms, Mongolia, Permafrost Periglac., 11, 85–90, 2000.

Luoto, M. and Seppälä, M.: Modelling the distribution of palsas in Finnish Lapland with logistic regression and GIS, Permafrost Periglac., 13, 17–28, 2002.

Mackay, J. R.: Pingos of the Pleistocene Mackenzie Delta area, Geographical Bulletin, 18, 21–63, 1962.

Mackay, J. R.: Pingos in Canada, in: First International Conference on Permafrost, Lafayette, Indiana, 1963, National Academy of Science – National Research Council, Washington, D.C., Publication 1287, 108–113, 1966.

Mackay, J. R.: The world of underground ice, Ann. Assoc. Am. Geogr., 62, 1–22, 1972.

Mackay, J. R.: Age of Ibyuk Pingo, Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, District of Mackenzie, Geological Survey of Canada, 76(1B), 59–60, 1976.

Mackay, J. R.: Contemporary pingos; a discussion, Biuletyn Peryglacjalny, 27, 133–154, 1978a.

Mackay, J. R.: Sub-pingo water lenses, Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, Northwest Territories, Can. J. Earth Sci., 15, 1219–1227, 1978b.

Mackay, J. R.: Pingos of the Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula area, Northwest Territories, Geogr. Phys. Quatern., 33, 3–61, 1979.

Mackay, J. R.: Growth of Ibyuk Pingo, western Arctic coast, Canada, and some implications for environmental reconstructions, Quaternary Res., 26, 68–80, 1986.

Mackay, J. R.: Some mechanical aspects of pingo growth and failure, western Arctic coast, Canada, Can. J. Earth Sci., 24, 1108–1119, 1987.

Mackay, J. R.: Pingo collapse and paleoclimatic reconstruction, Can. J. Earth Sci., 25, 495–511, 1988.

Mackay, J. R.: Pingo growth and collapse, Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula Area, Western Arctic Coast, Canada: A long-term field study, Geogr. Phys. Quatern., 52, 271–323, 1998.

Marsh, P., Russell, M., Pohl, S., Haywood, H., and Onclin, C.: Changes in thaw lake drainage in the Western Canadian Arctic from 1950 to 2000, Hydrol. Process., 23, 145–158, 2009.

Matsuoka, N.: Solifluction rates, processes and landforms: a global review, Earth-Sci. Rev., 55, 107–134, 2001.

Mazhitova, G. and Oberman, N.: Permafrost of the Usa River Basin, National Snow and Ice Data Center/World Data Center for Glaciology, Boulder, CO, Digital Media, 2003.

Mitchell, G. F.: Fossil pingos in the south of Ireland, Nature, 230, 43–44, 1971.

Müller, F.: Observations on pingos – Detailed studies in East Greenland and the Canadian Arctic [Beobachtungen über Pingos, Detailuntersuchungen in Ostgrönland und in der Kanadischen Arktis], Meddelelser om Grønland, 153(3), 127 pp., 1959.

Nelson, F. E.: Cryoplanation terrace orientation in Alaska, Geogr. Ann. A, 80, 135–151, 1998.

New, M., Hulme, M., and Jones, P. D.: Representing twentieth century space-time climate variability, part 1: development of a 1961–90 mean monthly terrestrial climatology, J. Climate, 12, 829–856, 1999.

Pissart, A.: Palsas, lithalsas and remnants of these periglacial mounds, A progress report, Prog. Phys. Geog., 26, 605–621, 2002.

Popov, A. I., Kachurin, S. P., and Grave, N. A.: Features of the development of frozen geomorphology in northern Eurasia, in: First International Conference on Permafrost, Lafayette, Indiana, 1963, National Academy of Science, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., Publication 1287, 181–185, 1963.

Porsild, A. E.: Earth mounds in unglaciated arctic northwestern America, Geogr. Rev., 28(1), 46–58, 1938.

Romanovskii, N. N.: Fundamentals of cryogenesis of lithosphere, Moscow University Press, Moscow, Russia, 336, 1993 (in Russian).

Romanovskii, N. N., Hubberten, H.-W., Gavrilov, A. V., Tumskoy, V. E., and Kholodov, A. L.: Permafrost of the east Siberian Arctic shelf and coastal lowlands, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 23, 1359–1369, 2004.

Romanovsky, V. E., Kholodov, A. L., Marchenko, S. S., Oberman, N. G., Drozdov, D. S., Malkova, G. V., Moskalenko, N. G., Vasiliev, A. A., Sergeev, D. O., and Zheleznyak, M. N.: Thermal State and Fate of Permafrost in Russia: First Results of IPY, in: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, Fairbanks, Alaska, 1511–1518, 29 June–3 July 2008.

Romanovsky, V. E., Drozdov, D. S., Oberman, N. G., Malkova, G. V., Kholodov, A. L., Marchenko, S. S., Moskalenko, N. G., Sergeev, D. O., Ukraintseva, N. G., Abramov, A. A., Gilichinsky, D. A., and Vasiliev, A. A.: Thermal state of permafrost in Russia, Permafrost Periglac., 21, 136–155, 2010.

Ross, N., Harris, C., Christiansen, H. H., and Brabham, P. J.: Ground penetrating radar investigation of open system pingos, Adventdalen, Svalbard, Norweg. J. Geograph., 59, 129–138, 2005.

Ross, N., Brabham, P. J., Harris, C., and Christiansen, H. H.: Internal structure of open system pingos, Adventdalen, Svalbard: The use of resistivity tomography to assess ground-ice conditions, J. Environ. Eng. Geophy., 12, 113–126, https://doi.org/10.2113/JEEG12.1.113, 2007.

Sazonova, T. S. and Romanovsky, V. E.: A model for regional-scale estimation of temporal and spatial variability of active layer thickness and mean annual ground temperatures, Permafrost Periglac., 14, 125–139, 2003.

Schirrmeister, L., Kunitsky, V., Grosse, G., Wetterich, S., Meyer, H., Schwamborn, G., Babiy, O., Derevyagin, A., and Siegert, C.: Sedimentary characteristics and origin of the Late Pleistocene Ice Complex on North-East Siberian Arctic coastal lowlands and islands – a review, Quatern. Int., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2010.04.004, in press, 2010.

Shumskii, P. A. and Vtyurin, B. I.: Underground ice, in: First International Conference on Permafrost, Lafayette, Indiana, 1963, National Academy of Science, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., Publication 1287, 108–113, 1966.

Soloviev, P. A.: Bulgunnyakhi Zentralnoi Yakutii [Bulgunnyakhs of Central Yakutia], in: Investigation of permafrost in the Yakutian ASSR [Issledovanie vechnoi merzloty v YaASSR], Moscow, Publishing House Acad. Science SSSR, 226–258, 1952 (in Russian).

Soloviev, P. A.: Thermokarst phenomena and landforms due to frostheaving in central Yakutia, Biuletyn Peryglacjalny, 23, 135–155, 1973.

Stager, J. K.: Progress report on the analysis of the characteristics and distribution of pingos east of the Mackenzie Delta, Can. Geogr., 7, 13–20, 1956.

Stolbovoi, V. and McCallum, I.: Land Resources of Russia, Digital Media, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the Russian Academy of Science, Laxenburg, Austria, 2002.

Stolbovoi, V., Fischer, G., Ovechkin, V. S., and Rozhkova, S.: Vegetation, The IIASA-LUC Project Georeferenced Database of the Former U.S.S.R., Vol. 4: Vegetation, Interim Report IR-98, in: Land Resources of Russia, edited by: Stolbovoi, V. and McCallum, I., Digital Media, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the Russian Academy of Science, Laxenburg, Austria, 2002, 1998.

Stolbovoi, V., Savin, I., Sheremet, B., and Kolesnikova, L.: Soil Reference Profiles, in: Land Resources of Russia, edited by: Stolbovoi, V. and McCallum, I., Digital Media, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and the Russian Academy of Science, Laxenburg, Austria, 2002, 2002.

Tolstikhin, N. I.: Podzemnye vody Zabaikalya i ikh gidrolakkolity [Groundwater in Zabaikalia and Hydrolakkoliths], Tr. Kom. lo vetshn. Merslote, 1932 (in Russian).

Vandenberghe, J. and Pissart, A.: Permafrost changes in Europe during the last glacial, Permafrost Periglac., 4, 121–135, 1993.

Vasilchuk, Y. K. and Budantseva, N. A.: Radiouglerodnoe opredelenye vosrasta bulgunnyakha na mestoroshdenii peszovoe v severnoi zhasti Sapadnoi Sibiri [Radiocarbon dating of the pingo in the Pestsovoye gas field in the North of West Siberia], Eng. Geol., 14–21 July 2010 (in Russian).

Walker, D. A., Walker, M. D., Everett, K. R., and Webber, P. J.: Pingos of the Prudhoe Bay Region, Alaska, Arctic Alpine Res., 17, 321–336, 1985.

Walker, D. A., Epstein, H. E., Romanovsky, V. E., Ping, C. L., Michaelson, G. J., Daanen, R. P., Shur, Y., Peterson, R. A., Krantz, W. B., Raynolds, M. K., Gould, W. A., Gonzalez, G., Nicolsky, D. J., Vonlanthen, C. M., Kade, A. N., Kuss, P., Kelley, A. M., Munger, C. A., Tarnocai, C. T., Matveyeva, N. V., and Daniëls, F. J. A.: Arctic patterned-ground ecosystems: A synthesis of field studies and models along a North American Arctic Transect, J. Geophys. Res., 113, G03S01, https://doi.org/10.1029/2007JG000504, 2008.

Walker, M. D., Everett, K. R., Walker, D. A., and Birkeland, P. W.: Soil Development as an Indicator of Relative Pingo Age, Northern Alaska, USA, Arctic Alpine Res., 28, 352–362, 1996.

Walter, K. M., Edwards, M. E., Grosse, G., Zimov, S. A., and Chapin III, F. S.: Thermokarst lakes as a source of atmospheric CH4 during the last deglaciation, Science, 318, 633–636, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1142924, 2007.

Wang, B. and French, H. M.: Permafrost on the Tibet Plateau, China, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 14, 255–274, 1995.

Washburn, A. L.: Permafrost features as evidence of climatic change, Earth-Sci. Rev., 15, 327–402, 1980.

Worsley, P. and Gurney, S. D.: Geomorphology and hydrogeological significance of the Holocene pingos in the Karup Valley area, Traill Island, northern east Greenland, J. Quaternary Sci., 11, 249–262, 1996.

Worsley, P., Gurney, S. D., and Collins, P. E. F.: Late holocene "mineral palsas" and associated vegetation patterns: A case study from Lac Hendry, Northern Quebec, Canada and significance for European Pleistocene Thermokarst, Quaternary Sci. Rev., 14, 179–192, 1995.

Yoshikawa, K.: Age of growth of two pingos, Sarqaq Dalen, West Central Greenland, Permafrost Periglac., 2, 245–252, 1991.

Yoshikawa, K. and Harada, K.: Observations on nearshore pingo growth, Adventdalen, Spitsbergen, Permafrost Periglac., 6, 361–372, 1995.

Yoshikawa, K., Leuschen, C., Ikeda, A., Harada, K., Gogineni, P., Hoekstra, P., Hinzman, L., Sawada, Y., and Matsuoka, N.: Comparison of geophysical investigations for detection of massive ground ice (pingo ice), J. Geophys. Res., 111, EO6S19, https://doi.org/10.1029/2005JE002573, 2006.