25 years of joint Yedoma Ice Complex studies in Arctic Russia, especially in Sakha/Yakutia

• Main Authors: Grosse, Guido, Schirrmeister, Lutz, Wetterich, Sebastian, Strauss, Jens, Meyer, Hanno, Opel, Thomas, Siegert, Christine, Windirsch, Torben, Jongejans, Loeka L., Laboor, Sebastian, Diekmann, Bernhard, Andreev, Andrei, Hubberten, Hans-Wolfgang, Kunitsky, Viktor V., Fedorov, Alexander N., Grigoriev, Mikhail N., Derevyagin, Alexander Yu, Tumskoy, Vladimir, Kuznetsova, Tatyana, Kienast, Frank, Ulrich, Mathias
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: Melnikov Permafrost Institute (MPI) 2020
• Subjects: Arctic; Ice; laptev; Laptev Sea; lena delta; permafrost; Sakha; Taymyr; Taymyr Peninsula; wedge*; Yakutia; Beringia; Siberia
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/53063/; https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/53063/1/Grosse_25yr_Yedoma_A0.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.9f47b2e4-dfba-410c-bf75-eb9332e7166e

Since 1994, permafrost deposits of the Siberian Yedoma region have been in the focus of the joint Russian-German scientific cooperation in terrestrial Polar research (Figure 1). These studies focused on cryostratigraphic, geochemical, geochronological, and paleontological characteristics at more than 25 individual study sites of the late Pleistocene Yedoma Ice Complex in Siberia and provided a detailed insight into the paleoenvironments and paleoclimate for the westernmost part of Beringia. The multidisciplinary investigations resulted in new ideas and discussions in the ongoing scientific debate on the origin of Yedoma Ice Complex and the main periglacial processes involved in its formation (1,2,3). The Yedoma Ice Complex is an ice-rich type of permafrost deposit widely distributed across Beringia. The Ice Complex aggradation is mainly controlled by the growth of syngenetic ice wedge polygons contributing up to 60 vol% of the entire formation. The clastic sedimentation of ice-oversaturated Yedoma deposits with considerable organic matter content is further controlled by local conditions such as source rocks and periglacial weathering processes, paleotopography, and temporary surface stabilization with autochthonous peat growth and soil formation. Key processes include alluvial, fluvial, and niveo-aeolian transport (4) as well as accumulation in ponding waters and continued in-situ frost weathering over millennial time-scales. Important post-depositional processes affecting Yedoma deposits are solifluction, cryoturbation, and pedogenesis. Major joint Russian-German field studies were conducted on Taymyr Peninsula (5,6,7,8,9,10,11), along the western and central Laptev Sea coasts (12,13,14,15,16,17,18), in the Lena Delta (19,20,21,22), on islands of the New Siberian Archipelago (23,24,25,26,27,28), and the adjacent mainland (29). Further study sites were conducted in the Kolyma Lowland (30), the Yana Highlands (31,32), in the foothills of the Verkhoyan Mountains (33,34,35,36), and in Central Yakutia (37). ...