Cryostratigraphy and ground-ice content of the upper permafrost in drained-lake basins, northern Alaska, April-May 2019

• Main Authors: Mikhail Kanevskiy, Benjamin Jones, Christopher Arp
• Format: Dataset
• Language: unknown
• Published: Arctic Data Center 2020
• Subjects: permafrost; ground ice; cryostructures; drained-lake basins; ice wedges; Arctic; Fairbanks; Pik; Barrow; Ice; wedge*; Alaska
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.18739/A2KP7TS1Q

This dataset contains information on cryostratigraphy and ground-ice content of the upper permafrost , which was based on the results of field work in the Utqiagvik (former Barrow, Western Coastal Plain [CPW]), Teshekpuk Lake (Central Coastal Plain [CPC]), Inigok (Sand Sea [SS] and Loess Belt [LB]), Oumalik (LB), and Atqasuk (LB) study areas, northern Alaska (April 16 - May 2, 2019). Cryostratigraphy was studied mainly in drained-lakes basins (DLB); several boreholes were drilled at the primary surface of the Arctic Coastal Plain (CPC and SS) and yedoma surface (LB). A total of 28 boreholes were drilled through the frozen active layer and the upper permafrost, 19 of them were drilled in DLB, 6 – at the main surface near weather stations, and 3 – in the Pik dunes area. Permafrost drilling was performed with the SIPRE corer. Entire cores were described and photographed in the field, and more than 33 meters of frozen cores were delivered to the University of Alaska Fairbanks cold room for additional descriptions and analyses (carbon-14, ice content). During the lab study of the cores, more than 200 samples were taken for evaluation of ice content (including gravimetric and volumetric moisture content, excess-ice content) of frozen soils. The dataset includes cryostratigraphic descriptions, ice-content values, and photographs of the frozen cores obtained from 28 boreholes.