Permafrost Degradation Leaves Us On Thin Ice
The Tanana River flows through interior Alaska, a region characterized by discontinuous permafrost. Studies link degrading permafrost to increased winter river discharge due to increasing groundwater input. In winter, interior Alaskan rivers are exclusively fed by groundwater, which serves as an ext...
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ftunivalaska:oai:scholarworks.alaska.edu:11122/10996 2023-05-15T16:36:41+02:00 Permafrost Degradation Leaves Us On Thin Ice Jones, Chas Kielland, Knut Hinzman, Larry 2013-10 http://hdl.handle.net/11122/10996 en_US eng http://hdl.handle.net/11122/10996 Research Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES::Earth sciences::Atmosphere and hydrosphere sciences::Hydrology Poster 2013 ftunivalaska 2023-02-23T21:37:36Z The Tanana River flows through interior Alaska, a region characterized by discontinuous permafrost. Studies link degrading permafrost to increased winter river discharge due to increasing groundwater input. In winter, interior Alaskan rivers are exclusively fed by groundwater, which serves as an external source of heat. In fact, some portions of rivers fed by groundwater maintain thin ice throughout the winter, or remain altogether ice-free, despite very cold air temperatures. These ice conditions represent a significant danger to winter travellers who use rivers for wintertime travel, particularly in this largely roadless area. We developed a physically-based, numeric model to explore how fluctuations in groundwater discharge control ice thickness on the Tanana River. The model allows us to examine how changes in groundwater flow affect ice dynamics by addressing two questions: 1) What are the dominant factors controlling seasonal ice dynamics on the Tanana River? 2) What are the rates of change in ice thickness resulting from observed and projected changes in these factors? NSF, Alaska EPSCoR, Water and Environmental Research Center, Alaska Climate Science Center, Resilience and Adaptation Program Still Image Ice permafrost Alaska University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA Winter River ENVELOPE(-113.003,-113.003,64.501,64.501) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of Alaska: ScholarWorks@UA |
op_collection_id |
ftunivalaska |
language |
English |
topic |
Research Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES::Earth sciences::Atmosphere and hydrosphere sciences::Hydrology |
spellingShingle |
Research Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES::Earth sciences::Atmosphere and hydrosphere sciences::Hydrology Jones, Chas Kielland, Knut Hinzman, Larry Permafrost Degradation Leaves Us On Thin Ice |
topic_facet |
Research Subject Categories::NATURAL SCIENCES::Earth sciences::Atmosphere and hydrosphere sciences::Hydrology |
description |
The Tanana River flows through interior Alaska, a region characterized by discontinuous permafrost. Studies link degrading permafrost to increased winter river discharge due to increasing groundwater input. In winter, interior Alaskan rivers are exclusively fed by groundwater, which serves as an external source of heat. In fact, some portions of rivers fed by groundwater maintain thin ice throughout the winter, or remain altogether ice-free, despite very cold air temperatures. These ice conditions represent a significant danger to winter travellers who use rivers for wintertime travel, particularly in this largely roadless area. We developed a physically-based, numeric model to explore how fluctuations in groundwater discharge control ice thickness on the Tanana River. The model allows us to examine how changes in groundwater flow affect ice dynamics by addressing two questions: 1) What are the dominant factors controlling seasonal ice dynamics on the Tanana River? 2) What are the rates of change in ice thickness resulting from observed and projected changes in these factors? NSF, Alaska EPSCoR, Water and Environmental Research Center, Alaska Climate Science Center, Resilience and Adaptation Program |
format |
Still Image |
author |
Jones, Chas Kielland, Knut Hinzman, Larry |
author_facet |
Jones, Chas Kielland, Knut Hinzman, Larry |
author_sort |
Jones, Chas |
title |
Permafrost Degradation Leaves Us On Thin Ice |
title_short |
Permafrost Degradation Leaves Us On Thin Ice |
title_full |
Permafrost Degradation Leaves Us On Thin Ice |
title_fullStr |
Permafrost Degradation Leaves Us On Thin Ice |
title_full_unstemmed |
Permafrost Degradation Leaves Us On Thin Ice |
title_sort |
permafrost degradation leaves us on thin ice |
publishDate |
2013 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/10996 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-113.003,-113.003,64.501,64.501) |
geographic |
Winter River |
geographic_facet |
Winter River |
genre |
Ice permafrost Alaska |
genre_facet |
Ice permafrost Alaska |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/11122/10996 |
_version_ |
1766027019122900992 |