NOAA Arctic Report Card 2023 : Permafrost Beneath Arctic Ocean Margins ...

• Main Authors: Overduin, P. P., Portnov, A., Ruppel, C. D.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: NOAA Global Ocean Monitoring and Observing Program 2023
• Subjects: Arctic; Arctic Ocean; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.25923/fzwe-6432; https://repository.library.noaa.gov/view/noaa/56622

NOAA Technical Report OAR ARC 23-10 ... : Even among scientists, it is not widely known that sediment beneath many continental shelves surrounding the Arctic Ocean is frozen. In areas that were exposed and not glaciated at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; approximately 21,000 years ago), prolonged subaerial exposure froze the ground down to hundreds of meters below the surface, creating permafrost. During deglaciation, sea levels rose and ocean water inundated coastal permafrost at low elevations, resulting in model estimates of 2.5 million km2 of ice-bearing subsea permafrost today (Fig. 1, Overduin et al. 2019). Today, terrestrial permafrost extends from the boreal forests on the south to the Arctic Ocean coastline on the north. On some Arctic Ocean margins, subsea permafrost starts at the coastline and continues northward beneath the seabed, even reaching the edge of the continental shelf in some places. ...