Ice-wedge casts as indicators of palaeotemperatures: precise proxy or wishful thinking?
The use of ice-wedge casts to reconstruct palaeotemperatures involves three stringent assumptions: (1) the influence of air temperature on ice-wedge cracking and the distribution of growing ice wedges are well known in contemporary permafrost environments; (2) contemporary and former permafrost envi...
Published in: | Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment |
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/0309133303pp365ra https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1191/0309133303pp365ra |
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crsagepubl:10.1191/0309133303pp365ra 2024-10-13T14:07:57+00:00 Ice-wedge casts as indicators of palaeotemperatures: precise proxy or wishful thinking? Murton, Julian B. Kolstrup, Else 2003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/0309133303pp365ra https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1191/0309133303pp365ra en eng SAGE Publications https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment volume 27, issue 2, page 155-170 ISSN 0309-1333 1477-0296 journal-article 2003 crsagepubl https://doi.org/10.1191/0309133303pp365ra 2024-10-01T04:09:32Z The use of ice-wedge casts to reconstruct palaeotemperatures involves three stringent assumptions: (1) the influence of air temperature on ice-wedge cracking and the distribution of growing ice wedges are well known in contemporary permafrost environments; (2) contemporary and former permafrost environments are sufficiently similar for the same quantitative relationships between air temperature and ice-wedge cracking to apply to both environments; and (3) the history of ice-wedge growth and decay can confidently be inferred from ice-wedge casts. We propose that the validity of these assumptions has been overestimated in terms of the Weichselian of northwest Europe because of (i) limited knowledge of the frequency of ice-wedge cracking in contemporary permafrost environments; (ii) the complex and incompletely understood natural controls on cracking; (iii) probable differences between former cold environments in mid latitudes and contemporary cold environments in high latitudes; (iv) limited understanding of ice-wedge growth and decay histories, and of the natural controls on and mechanisms of ice-wedge casting; and (v) different time perspectives. Given all these uncertainties, it is timely to critically re-evaluate the use of Weichselian ice-wedge casts for palaeoclimatic and environmental reconstructions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Ice permafrost wedge* SAGE Publications Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment 27 2 155 170 |
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Open Polar |
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SAGE Publications |
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English |
description |
The use of ice-wedge casts to reconstruct palaeotemperatures involves three stringent assumptions: (1) the influence of air temperature on ice-wedge cracking and the distribution of growing ice wedges are well known in contemporary permafrost environments; (2) contemporary and former permafrost environments are sufficiently similar for the same quantitative relationships between air temperature and ice-wedge cracking to apply to both environments; and (3) the history of ice-wedge growth and decay can confidently be inferred from ice-wedge casts. We propose that the validity of these assumptions has been overestimated in terms of the Weichselian of northwest Europe because of (i) limited knowledge of the frequency of ice-wedge cracking in contemporary permafrost environments; (ii) the complex and incompletely understood natural controls on cracking; (iii) probable differences between former cold environments in mid latitudes and contemporary cold environments in high latitudes; (iv) limited understanding of ice-wedge growth and decay histories, and of the natural controls on and mechanisms of ice-wedge casting; and (v) different time perspectives. Given all these uncertainties, it is timely to critically re-evaluate the use of Weichselian ice-wedge casts for palaeoclimatic and environmental reconstructions. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Murton, Julian B. Kolstrup, Else |
spellingShingle |
Murton, Julian B. Kolstrup, Else Ice-wedge casts as indicators of palaeotemperatures: precise proxy or wishful thinking? |
author_facet |
Murton, Julian B. Kolstrup, Else |
author_sort |
Murton, Julian B. |
title |
Ice-wedge casts as indicators of palaeotemperatures: precise proxy or wishful thinking? |
title_short |
Ice-wedge casts as indicators of palaeotemperatures: precise proxy or wishful thinking? |
title_full |
Ice-wedge casts as indicators of palaeotemperatures: precise proxy or wishful thinking? |
title_fullStr |
Ice-wedge casts as indicators of palaeotemperatures: precise proxy or wishful thinking? |
title_full_unstemmed |
Ice-wedge casts as indicators of palaeotemperatures: precise proxy or wishful thinking? |
title_sort |
ice-wedge casts as indicators of palaeotemperatures: precise proxy or wishful thinking? |
publisher |
SAGE Publications |
publishDate |
2003 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.1191/0309133303pp365ra https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1191/0309133303pp365ra |
genre |
Ice permafrost wedge* |
genre_facet |
Ice permafrost wedge* |
op_source |
Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment volume 27, issue 2, page 155-170 ISSN 0309-1333 1477-0296 |
op_rights |
https://journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1191/0309133303pp365ra |
container_title |
Progress in Physical Geography: Earth and Environment |
container_volume |
27 |
container_issue |
2 |
container_start_page |
155 |
op_container_end_page |
170 |
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1812814522636828672 |