Identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements
Ongoing global warming intensifies the degradation of permafrost. Permafrost thawing impacts landform evolution, reduces freshwater resources, enhances the potential of natural hazards and thus has significant socio-economic impacts. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) has been widely used to ma...
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Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2919-2023 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/2919/2023/ |
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ftcopernicus:oai:publications.copernicus.org:tc107280 2023-08-15T12:41:37+02:00 Identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements Buckel, Johannes Mudler, Jan Gardeweg, Rainer Hauck, Christian Hilbich, Christin Frauenfelder, Regula Kneisel, Christof Buchelt, Sebastian Blöthe, Jan Henrik Hördt, Andreas Bücker, Matthias 2023-07-19 application/pdf https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2919-2023 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/2919/2023/ eng eng doi:10.5194/tc-17-2919-2023 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/2919/2023/ eISSN: 1994-0424 Text 2023 ftcopernicus https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2919-2023 2023-07-24T16:24:16Z Ongoing global warming intensifies the degradation of permafrost. Permafrost thawing impacts landform evolution, reduces freshwater resources, enhances the potential of natural hazards and thus has significant socio-economic impacts. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) has been widely used to map the ice-containing permafrost by its resistivity contrast compared to the surrounding unfrozen medium. This study aims to reveal the effects of ongoing climate warming on mountain permafrost by repeating historical ERT and analyzing the temporal changes in the resistivity distribution. In order to facilitate the measurements, we introduce and discuss the employment of textile electrodes. These newly developed electrodes significantly reduce working effort, are easy to deploy on blocky surfaces and yield sufficiently low contact resistances. We analyze permafrost evolution on three periglacial landforms (two rock glaciers and one talus slope) in the Swiss and Austrian Alps by repeating historical surveys after 10, 12 and 16 years, respectively. The resistivity values have been significantly reduced in ice-poor permafrost landforms at all study sites. Interestingly, resistivity values related to ice-rich permafrost in the studied active rock glacier partly increased during the studied time period. To explain this apparently counterintuitive (in view of increased resistivity) observation, geomorphological circumstances, such as the relief and increased creep velocity of the active rock glacier, are discussed by using additional remote sensing data. The present study highlights ice-poor permafrost degradation in the Alps resulting from ever-accelerating global warming. Text Ice permafrost Copernicus Publications: E-Journals The Cryosphere 17 7 2919 2940 |
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Open Polar |
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Copernicus Publications: E-Journals |
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ftcopernicus |
language |
English |
description |
Ongoing global warming intensifies the degradation of permafrost. Permafrost thawing impacts landform evolution, reduces freshwater resources, enhances the potential of natural hazards and thus has significant socio-economic impacts. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) has been widely used to map the ice-containing permafrost by its resistivity contrast compared to the surrounding unfrozen medium. This study aims to reveal the effects of ongoing climate warming on mountain permafrost by repeating historical ERT and analyzing the temporal changes in the resistivity distribution. In order to facilitate the measurements, we introduce and discuss the employment of textile electrodes. These newly developed electrodes significantly reduce working effort, are easy to deploy on blocky surfaces and yield sufficiently low contact resistances. We analyze permafrost evolution on three periglacial landforms (two rock glaciers and one talus slope) in the Swiss and Austrian Alps by repeating historical surveys after 10, 12 and 16 years, respectively. The resistivity values have been significantly reduced in ice-poor permafrost landforms at all study sites. Interestingly, resistivity values related to ice-rich permafrost in the studied active rock glacier partly increased during the studied time period. To explain this apparently counterintuitive (in view of increased resistivity) observation, geomorphological circumstances, such as the relief and increased creep velocity of the active rock glacier, are discussed by using additional remote sensing data. The present study highlights ice-poor permafrost degradation in the Alps resulting from ever-accelerating global warming. |
format |
Text |
author |
Buckel, Johannes Mudler, Jan Gardeweg, Rainer Hauck, Christian Hilbich, Christin Frauenfelder, Regula Kneisel, Christof Buchelt, Sebastian Blöthe, Jan Henrik Hördt, Andreas Bücker, Matthias |
spellingShingle |
Buckel, Johannes Mudler, Jan Gardeweg, Rainer Hauck, Christian Hilbich, Christin Frauenfelder, Regula Kneisel, Christof Buchelt, Sebastian Blöthe, Jan Henrik Hördt, Andreas Bücker, Matthias Identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements |
author_facet |
Buckel, Johannes Mudler, Jan Gardeweg, Rainer Hauck, Christian Hilbich, Christin Frauenfelder, Regula Kneisel, Christof Buchelt, Sebastian Blöthe, Jan Henrik Hördt, Andreas Bücker, Matthias |
author_sort |
Buckel, Johannes |
title |
Identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements |
title_short |
Identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements |
title_full |
Identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements |
title_fullStr |
Identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements |
title_full_unstemmed |
Identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements |
title_sort |
identifying mountain permafrost degradation by repeating historical electrical resistivity tomography (ert) measurements |
publishDate |
2023 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2919-2023 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/2919/2023/ |
genre |
Ice permafrost |
genre_facet |
Ice permafrost |
op_source |
eISSN: 1994-0424 |
op_relation |
doi:10.5194/tc-17-2919-2023 https://tc.copernicus.org/articles/17/2919/2023/ |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-17-2919-2023 |
container_title |
The Cryosphere |
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17 |
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7 |
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2919 |
op_container_end_page |
2940 |
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1774294986828808192 |