News from the Klondike Goldfields (Canada) - first results of the AWI expedition Klondike 2023

• Main Authors: Schirrmeister, Lutz, Opel, Thomas, Seemann, Fabian, Porter, Trevor, Meyer, Hanno, Froese, Duane
• Format: Conference Object
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2024
• Subjects: Yukon; Canada; Blanche; Gulch; Dawson City; Goldfields; Little Blanche Creek; Whitman Gulch; Dawson; Ice; permafrost; wedge*
• Online Access: https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58286/; https://epic.awi.de/id/eprint/58286/1/Poster%20Schirrmeister%20et%20al%20240108.pdf; https://hdl.handle.net/10013/epic.5fcf7a0d-6023-4169-853b-3bd63e1d2f57

Over the last 25 years, Canadian scientists have studied the permafrost environmental archives in the Klondike Goldfields south of Dawson City. In 2023, a small Canadian-German team visiting this area to sample mining exposures in the Klondike area. The goal was to conduct studies on ground ice (ice wedges and pore ice) and frozen sediments to reconstruct past landscape and climate conditions. Detailed profiles were sampled at three sites at Little Blanche Creek, Whitman Gulch and Bear Creek. Ice wedges were described in terms of their size, the color of ice, internal structure, existence and form of gas bubbles and were sampled by chain saw as blocks. The frozen sediment was cleaned, and ice, sediment and cryostructures were described, followed by sediment sampling with an axe and hammer. Separately, sediment cores were collected with a battery driven drill for biomarker studies. In our presentation, we present the first results of new field and laboratory studies. This concerns age determinations, sediment data, stable isotopes and hydrochemistry of the ground ice. We expect new knowledge regarding the reconstruction of Late Quaternary environment of Central Yukon.