Late Quaternary sedimentation and permafrost development in a Svalbard fjord‐valley, Norwegian high Arctic

• Published in: Sedimentology
• Main Authors: Gilbert, Graham L., O'Neill, Hugh B., Nemec, Wojciech, Thiel, Christine, Christiansen, Hanne H., Buylaert, Jan‐Pieter
• Other Authors: Eyles, Nick, Statoil, Baker Hughes, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2018
• Subjects: Adventdalen; Arctic; Svalbard; Ice; permafrost; Spitsbergen
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1111/sed.12476; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fsed.12476; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/sed.12476

Abstract The infilling history of the Adventdalen fjord‐valley in central Spitsbergen is reconstructed, with a focus on permafrost development, based on sedimentological and cryostratigraphic evidence from drilling cores. The techniques of optically stimulated luminescence and radiocarbon accelerator mass‐spectrometry dating were used to establish sediment chronology. The fjord‐fill sedimentary succession includes the fjord‐bottom late Weichselian subglacial till of the Last Glacial Maximum, the early Holocene muddy glaciomarine deposits with ice‐rafted debris formed during the fjord deglaciation, and the younger Holocene deposits of a fjord‐head Gilbert‐type delta of which the fluvial distributary plain shows raised alluvial terraces hosting aeolian sedimentation. This sedimentary record of the last glaciation/deglaciation cycle is interpreted in terms of sequence stratigraphy. Zones of epigenetic and syngenetic permafrost are recognized from the vertical distribution of cryofacies, with a conclusion that the formation of permafrost commenced and extended down‐fjord as the fluvio‐deltaic fjord‐fill was gradually reaching subaerial exposure. The upwards‐grown syngenetic permafrost and the top part of downwards‐grown epigenetic permafrost below contain excess ice in a suite of cryofacies indicating ground‐ice segregation and segregative intrusion. The deeper epigenetic permafrost is ice‐poor and contains cryofacies formed solely by segregation processes. This case study may serve as an analogue for other similar Arctic fjord‐valleys where the fjord‐head shoreline was established during the post‐Weichselian deglaciation.