Study of current conditions of the active layer and top of permafrost of the embankment under the otto nordenskjöld museum, cerro nevado island, antarctica

• Main Author: Goyanes, Gabriel Alejandro
• Language: unknown
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Antarctica; Climate change; Otto Nordenskjöld Museum; Permafrost; Thermal regime; active layer; embankment; frozen ground; monument; spatial distribution; topography; Snow Hill Island; West Antarctica; Antarctic; The Antarctic; Argentina; Hill Island; Nordenskjöld; Cerro Nevado; Snow Hill; Antarc*; Ice; Otto Nordenskjöld; permafrost
• Online Access: https://bibliotecadigital.exactas.uba.ar/collection/paper/document/paper_00044822_v73_n4_p552_Goyanes; https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12110/paper_00044822_v73_n4_p552_Goyanes

The Otto Nordenskjöld hut was built in Cerro Nevado Island, Antarctica, in 1902. It was named as Historic Site and Monument No. 38 by the Antarctic Treaty and as National Historic Monument by a decree of the Argentinian government (07/26/1965). For this, Argentina must preserve the hut from the natural deterioration which is subject. In this work, a topographical survey is conducted together with the assessment of the mitigation techniques used in the area from 1980 to the present in order to prevent permafrost degradation under the museum. Besides, the thermal regime and the spatial distribution of the active layer and the top of permafrost and their interaction with different topographic variables are analyzed. The studies conducted in the area showed the close surface location of the frozen ground favours the surface subsidence by melting of the underground ice. This phenomenon creates concavities where the snow is trapped. When it is melted, it transfers heat to the environment increasing shallow frozen ground degradation. These processes occur near the hut Otto Nordenskjöld Museum, so a fast intervention was necessary. Prevention works were made by MUSEOANTAR program during the 2014-2015 Antarctic summer fieldwork and they were focus on the NE-SW embankment slope according to the achieved results. Vertical sheet piles and horizontal gabions were used to fill the depressions with sediments of different grain size in order to raise the average level of the surface, smooth all sites of snow accumulation and promote cold air circulation. © 2016, Asociacion Geologica Argentina. All rights reserved. Fil:Goyanes, G. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina.