Detailed detection of active layer freeze–thaw dynamics using quasi-continuous electrical resistivity tomography (Deception Island, Antarctica).

• Published in: The Cryosphere
• Main Authors: Farzamian, Mohammad, Vieira, Gonçalo, Santos, Fernando A. Monteiro, Tabar, Borhan Yaghoobi, Hauck, Christian, Paz, Maria Catarina, Bernardo, Ivo, Ramos, Miguel, Angel de Pablo, Miguel
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: Deception Island; Crater Lake; Active layer monitoring; Antarc*; Antarctica; permafrost; The Cryosphere
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.26/36134; https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-14-1105-2020

Climate-induced warming of permafrost soils is a global phenomenon, with regional and site-specific vari- ations which are not fully understood. In this context, a 2- D automated electrical resistivity tomography (A-ERT) sys- tem was installed for the first time in Antarctica at Decep- tion Island, associated to the existing Crater Lake site of the Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring – South Program (CALM-S) – site. This setup aims to (i) monitor subsurface freezing and thawing processes on a daily and seasonal basis and map the spatial and temporal variability in thaw depth and to (ii) study the impact of short-lived extreme meteoro- logical events on active layer dynamics. In addition, the feasi- bility of installing and running autonomous ERT monitoring stations in remote and extreme environments such as Antarc- tica was evaluated for the first time. Measurements were re- peated at 4 h intervals during a full year, enabling the detec- tion of seasonal trends and short-lived resistivity changes re- flecting individual meteorological events. The latter is impor- tant for distinguishing between (1) long-term climatic trends and (2) the impact of anomalous seasons on the ground ther- mal regime. Our full-year dataset shows large and fast temporal resis- tivity changes during the seasonal active layer freezing and thawing and indicates that our system setup can resolve spa- tiotemporal thaw depth variability along the experimental transect at very high temporal resolution. The largest resis- tivity changes took place during the freezing season in April, when low temperatures induce an abrupt phase change in the active layer in the absence of snow cover. The seasonal thaw- ing of the active layer is associated with a slower resistivity decrease during October due to the presence of snow cover and the corresponding zero-curtain effect. Detailed investiga- tion of the daily resistivity variations reveals several periods with rapid and sharp resistivity changes of the near-surface layers due to the brief surficial ...