Permafrost

V. Romanovsky¹, N. Oberman², D. Drozdov ³, G. Malkova ³, A. Kholodov¹, and S. Marchenko¹

¹Geophyiscal Institute, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK
² MIREKO, Syktivkar, Russia
³ Earth Cryosphere Institute, Tumen, Russia

October 7, 2009

Observations show a general increase in permafrost temperatures during the last several decades in Alaska (Romanovsky et al., 2002; Romanovsky et al., 2007; Osterkamp, 2008), northwest Canada (Couture et al., 2003; Smith et al., 2005), Siberia (Oberman and Mazhitova, 2001; Oberman, 2008; Drozdov et al., 2008; Romanovsky et al., 2008), and Northern Europe (Isaksen et al., 2000; Harris and Haeberli, 2003). Most of the permafrost observatories in Alaska show a substantial warming during the last 20 years. The detailed characteristic of the warming varies between locations, but is typically from 0.5 to 2°C at the depth of zero seasonal temperature variations in permafrost (Osterkamp, 2008). It is worth noting that permafrost temperature has been relatively stable on the North Slope of Alaska during 2000-2008.

Permafrost temperature has increased by 1 to 2°C in northern Russia during the last 30 to 35 years (Figure P1). This observed increase is very similar in magnitude and timing to what has been observed in Alaska. Also, a common feature for Alaskan and Russian sites is more significant warming in relatively cold permafrost than in warm permafrost. This fact may be explained by a partial melting of constituent ice within a substantial portion of warm permafrost (upper 20-25 meters) with temperatures in this portion still below 0°C. This partial ice melting slows down the rate of permafrost warming as the temperature of permafrost approaches 0°C (Romanovsky, 2007). An especially noticeable permafrost temperature increase in the Russian Arctic was observed during the last two years. The mean annual permafrost temperature at 15-m depth increased by more than 0.3°C in the Tiksi area and by 0.25°C at 10-m depth in the European North of Russia.

Figure P1. Left above: Location of the long-term MIREKO and the Earth Cryosphere Institute permafrost observatories in northern Russia. Left below: Changes in permafrost temperatures at 15-m depth during the last 20 to 25 years at selected stations in the Vorkuta region (updated from Oberman, 2008). Right: Changes in permafrost temperatures at 10-m depth during the last 35 years at selected stations in the Urengoy (above) and Nadym (below) regions (updated from Romanovsky et al., 2008).

The last 30-years warming in permafrost temperatures have resulted in thawing of permafrost in areas of discontinuous permafrost in Russia. Most of observed long-term thawing has occurred in the Vorkuta and Nadym research areas (Oberman, 2008). At one of the locations, the upper boundary of permafrost lowered to 8.6 m in 30 years. It lowered even more, to almost 16 m, in an area where a newly developed talik (a volume or layer of all-year-round unfrozen soil above or within the permafrost) coalesced with an already-existing lateral talik. The average increase in depth of the permafrost table in the Vorkuta and Nadym regions in Russia ranged from 0.6 to 6.7 m depending on the geographical location, ice content, lithological characteristics of sediments, hydrological, hydrogeological, and other factors.

References

Couture, R., S. Smith, S. D. Robinson, M. M. Burgess, and S. Solomon, 2003: On the hazards to infrastructure in the Canadian North associated with thawing of permafrost. Proceedings of Geohazards, 3rd Canadian Conference on Geotechnique and Natural Hazards. The Canadian Geotechnical Society: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada; 97–104.

Drozdov, D. S., G. V. Malkova, and V. P. Melnikov, 2008: Recent Advances in Russian Geocryological Research: A Contribution to the International Polar Year, In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, June 29-July 3, Fairbanks, Alaska, 2008, Vol. 1, pp. 379-384.

Harris, C., and W. Haeberli, 2003: Warming permafrost in European mountains, World Meteorol. Org. Bull., 52(3), 6 pp., see also Global and Planetary Change, 39(2003), 215-225.

IPCC, 2007: Climate change 2007: The physical science basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Solomon, S., D. Qin, M. Manning, Z. Chen, M. Marquis, K.B. Averyt, M. Tignor and H.L. Miller (eds.), Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA.

Isaksen, K., D. Vonder Mühll, H. Gubler, T. Kohl, and J. L. Sollid, 2000: Ground surface temperature reconstruction based on data from a deep borehole in permafrost at Janssonhaugen, Svalbard. Annals of Glaciology, 31, 287-294.

Oberman, N. G., 2008: Contemporary Permafrost Degradation of Northern European Russia, In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, June 29-July 3, Fairbanks, Alaska, 2008, Vol. 2, pp. 1305-1310.

Oberman, N. G., and G. G. Mazhitova, 2001: Permafrost dynamics in the northeast of European Russia at the end of the 20th century. Norwegian J. of Geography, 55, 241-244.

Osterkamp, T. E., 2008: Thermal State of Permafrost in Alaska During the Fourth Quarter of the Twentieth Century (Plenary Paper), In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, June 29-July 3, Fairbanks, Alaska, 2008, Vol. 2, pp. 1333-1338.

Romanovsky, V. E., M. Burgess, S. Smith, K. Yoshikawa, and J. Brown, 2002: Permafrost temperature records: Indicator of climate change. Eos, Trans. Amer. Geophys. Union, 83(50), 589, 593-594.

Romanovsky, V. E., S. Gruber, A. Instanes, H. Jin, S. S. Marchenko, S. L. Smith, D. Trombotto, and K. M. Walter, 2007: Frozen Ground, Chapter 7, In: Global Outlook for Ice and Snow, Earthprint, UNEP/GRID, Arendal, Norway, pp. 181-200.

Romanovsky, V. E., and Coauthors, 2008: Thermal State and Fate of Permafrost in Russia: First Results of IPY (Plenary Paper), In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, June 29-July 3, Fairbanks, Alaska, 2008, Vol. 2, pp. 1511-1518.

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