Coastal dune development in a thermokarst environment: Some implications for environmental reconstruction, Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula N.W.T.

• Published in: Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
• Main Author: Ruz, Marie‐Hélène
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 1993
• Subjects: Barrier Islands; Northwest Territories; Tuktoyaktuk; Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula; Permafrost and Periglacial Processes; Thermokarst
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ppp.3430040307; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Fppp.3430040307; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ppp.3430040307

Abstract The landscape of the Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula coastal plain, Northwest Territories, has been strongly affected by thermokarst processes. Along thermokarst lakes developed in glacio‐fluvial sands lake‐shore dunes are common. Their formation seems related to complete or partial lake drainage. During the Holocene the rise of relative sea level has induced the submergence of the coastal plain that extended offshore of the present‐day coastal lowlands. Today coastal retreat rates in excess of 1 m/yr result in thermokarst lakes breaching and landward migration of spits and barrier‐islands. A unique type of coastal dune has been observed along two coastal sections. Late Holocene lake‐shore dunes are eroded alongshore and capped by modern coastal dunes. These coastal dunes developed in a thermokarst environment are indicators of lake drainage probably induced by late Holocene sea level rise.