Brief communication: Alternation of thaw zones and deep permafrost in the cold climate conditions of the East Siberian Mountains, Suntar-Khayata Range

• Main Authors: Sysolyatin, Robert, Serikov, Sergei, Kirillin, Anatoly, Litovko, Andrey, Sivtcev, Maxim
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Copernicus Publications 2023
• Subjects: article; Verlagsveröffentlichung; Suntar; Talik; permafrost
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-49; https://noa.gwlb.de/receive/cop_mods_00065513; https://noa.gwlb.de/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/cop_derivate_00064033/egusphere-2023-49.pdf; https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2023/egusphere-2023-49/egusphere-2023-49.pdf

The Suntar-Khayata Range include numerous natural phenomena interacting or depending on permafrost conditions. Here, we examine some patterns of deep permafrost and talik zones on adjacent sites. A 210 m deep borehole in siltstone bedrock was equipped in July 2010 for temperature monitoring of the topmost 15 m and measurements of a deep permafrost temperature profile. The temperature curvature in the upper part has a bend which is consistent with at upper portion justify by climate warming and shows a steady-state linear geothermal profile below 85 m depth with a high geothermal heat flux. A shallow borehole situated at the river floodplain was used to investigate thaw zones temperature regime. Temperatures down to 6.7 m has been monitored at 5-min intervals during heavy rainfall and has had quite peculiar way. The thickness of the season freezing layer reach to 5.7 m, moreover ground temperature increases to 6 °C at 6.7 m depth by groundwater heat transfer. This study provides some new insight on the permafrost condition at one of the coldest places of Northern Hemisphere.