. GEOS 110 Fall 2010 Introduction to Cryosphere Part 2 Fall 2011

Spitsbergen

Beth Caissie, from Russia B Hallett, Svalbard, NGS Massive ice ices and ground ice Elaborate stone circles

Subsurface water freezes, which can force frozen ground upward to form cone-shaped mounds with cores of ice— pingos—on Canada’s Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, NWT.

“Darker than surrounding Canadian tundra, ponds absorb more heat from the sun, amplify their own melting, and over time thread together into beaded streams. As the Earth warms, its vast frozen lands are being transformed— and we are only starting to grasp the consequences.”

“Ice wedges penetrate deep into frozen soil, chiseling tundra into room-size polygons—a signature texture of permafrost landscapes. Climate change may be marking the Canadian Arctic, too, as meltwater erodes the edges of some polygons and deepens pools in their centers.”

Gas Hydrate Crystal TETRAKAIDECAHEDRON: Weaire & Phelan, 1993

Stability Field Offshore, GH forms in top ~300 m below sea floor

Permafrost GH: A Climate Driver Ice Age – Low CH 4 Interglacial - Hi CH 4 Cold Warm

Kvenvolden, 1999 Marine Gas Hydrates: A climate Driver CH 4 release & Debris fans, pockmarks, diapir collapse on seabed CH 4