Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T03:24:22.997Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Slope hummock development, Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Antoni G. Lewkowicz
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Slope hummocks, a type of nonsorted patterned ground, are composed of stratified, organic, silty sand, and develop through the interaction of niveo-eolian deposition, solifluction, slopewash, and vegetation growth. Fields of hummocks show consistent patterns: forms on convex slopes increase in height downslope until the channel is reached, whereas those on convexo-concave slopes increase on the upper convexity but are buried by niveo-eolian deposition downslope of the snowbank remnant. These trends can be reproduced using a simple numerical model based on measured slope and snow depth profiles, sediment concentrations in the snow and solifluction rates. The model indicates that hummocks transit slopes of 20–40 m in about 2–4 ka, a time-frame that is plausible given site emergence, measured rates of solifluction, and published dates for organic horizons within hummocks on northern Ellesmere Island. Sensitivity analyses show that long-term effect of climate warming on hummock heights may differ depending on whether it is accompanied by precipitation increase or decrease. The required combination of two-sided freezing to promote plug-like movement, incomplete vegetation cover and thin snow that enable eolian erosion during winter and spring, and vegetation growth in snow-bed sites to stabilize niveo-eolian deposits may explain why these forms are important regionally but apparently are not present throughout the Arctic.

Keywords

Patterned groundNonsorted netNiveo-eolian processesSolifluctionHummocksClimate change
Type
Research Article
Information
Quaternary Research , Volume 75 , Issue 2 , March 2011 , pp. 334 - 346
Copyright
University of Washington

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

ACIA, Impacts of a Warming Arctic—Arctic Climate Impact Assessment. (2004). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Alt, B.T., Labine, C.L., Atkinson, D.E., Headley, A.N., and Wolfe, P.M. Automatic weather station results from Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 529, (2000). 37–97.Google Scholar
Atkinson, D.E. Modelling July mean temperatures on Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Nunavut. Geological Survey of Canada Bulletin 529, (2000). 99–111.Google Scholar
Bell, T. The last glaciation and sea level history of Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Canadian High Arctic. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 33, (1996). 1075–1086.Google Scholar
Bennett, L., and French, H.M. Solifluction and the role of permafrost creep, eastern Melville Island, N.W.T., Canada. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 2, (1991). 95–102.Google Scholar
Beschel, R.E. Hummocks and their vegetation in the High Arctic. Proceedings of the First International Conference on Permafrost. (1965). National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, Washington. 13–20. Publication No. 1287 Google Scholar
Bourgeois, J., Koerner, R.M., Gajewski, K., and Fisher, D.A. A Holocene ice-core pollen record from Ellesmere Isalnd, Nunavut, Canada. Quaternary Research 54, (2000). 275–283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broll, G. and Tarnocai, C., (2002). Turf hummocks on Ellesmere Island, Canada. In Transactions of the 17th World Congress of Soil Science, August 14-21, (2002). Bangkok, Thailand., Paper no. 1049 CD-ROM.Google Scholar
CAVM Team. (2003). Circumpolar Arctic Vegetation Map. (1:7, 500, 000 scale). Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna (CAFF) Map No. 1. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Anchorage, Alaska, . ISBN: 0-9767525-0-6, ISBN-13: 978-0-9767525-0-9.Google Scholar
Edlund, S.A. Climate change and its effects on Canadian arctic plant communities. Woo, M.-K., and Gregor, D.J. Proceedings of a Symposium held at McMaster University, November 14-15, 1991. Arctic Environment: Past, Present and Future (1992). Department of Geography, McMaster University, Hamilton. 121–137.Google Scholar
Edlund, S.A., and Alt, B.T. Regional congruence of vegetation and summer climate patterns in the Queen Elizabeth Islands, Northwest Territories, Canada. Arctic 42, (1989). 3–23.Google Scholar
Environment Canada, (2008). Climate Normals and Averages: Eureka. http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/climate_normals/stnselect_e.html. Accessed 20 December, (2008).Google Scholar
Gajewski, K., Garneau, M., and Bourgeois, J.C. Paleoenvironments of the Canadian High Arctic derived from pollen and plant macrofossils: problems and potentials. Quaternary Science Reviews 14, (1995). 609–629.Google Scholar
Grab, S. Aspects of the geomorphology, genesis and environmental significance of earth hummocks (thúfur, pounus): miniature cryogenic mounds. Progress in Physical Geography 29, (2005). 139–155.Google Scholar
Gudjonsson, K.A. Hummocks on the Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories. Unpublished M.Sc. thesis. (1992). Department of Geography, University of Toronto, Google Scholar
Harris, C. Periglacial Mass Wasting: a review of research. (1981). Geo Abstracts, Norwich.Google Scholar
Heginbottom, J.A., Dubreuil, M.A., and Harker, P.T. Canada - Permafrost. National Atlas of Canada, Map 2.1. (1995). Natural Resources Canada, Ottawa.Google Scholar
Hodgson, D.A. The last glaciation of west-central Ellesmere Island, Arctic Archipelago. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 22, (1985). 347–368.Google Scholar
Hodgson, D.A., St-Onge, D.A. and Edlund, S.A., (1991). Surficial materials of Hot Weather Creek basin, Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories. Current Research, Part E, Geological Survey of Canada Paper 91-1E, 157-163.Google Scholar
IPCC Solomon, S., Qin, D., Manning, M., Chen, Z., Marquis, M., Averyt, K.B., Tignor, M., and Miller, H.L. Climate Change 2007: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York. 996 pp.Google Scholar
Kerfoot, D.E. The geomorphology and permafrost conditions of Garry Island, N.W.T. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. (1969). Department of Geography, University of British Columbia, Google Scholar
Kokelj, S.V., Burn, C.R., and Tarnocai, C. The structure and dynamics of earth hummocks in the subarctic forest near Inuvik, Northwest Territories, Canada. Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research 39, (2007). 99–109.Google Scholar
Lewkowicz, A.G. Slope processes. Clark, M.J. Advances in Periglacial Geomorphology. (1988). Wiley, Chichester. 325–368.Google Scholar
Lewkowicz, A.G. A solifluction meter for permafrost sites. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 3, (1992). 11–18.Google Scholar
Lewkowicz, A.G. Ice wedge rejuvenation, Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 5, (1994). 251–268.Google Scholar
Lewkowicz, A.G. Eolian sediment transport during winter, Black Top Creek, Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Canadian Arctic. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 9, (1998). 35–46.Google Scholar
Lewkowicz, A.G., and Clarke, S.A. Late-summer solifluction and active layer depths, Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Canada. Lewkowicz, A.G., and Allard, M. Proceedings, Seventh International Conference on Permafrost, Yellowknife, June 23-27, 1998. (1998). Nordicana, Centre d'études nordiques, Québec City. 641–646.Google Scholar
Lewkowicz, A.G. and Gudjonsson, K.A., (1992). Slope hummocks on Fosheim Peninsula, Northwest Territories. Current Research, Part B, Geological Survey of Canada Paper 92-1B, 97-102.Google Scholar
Lewkowicz, A.G., and Kokelj, S.V. Slope sediment yield in arid lowland continuous permafrost environments, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Catena 46, (2002). 261–283.Google Scholar
Lewkowicz, A.G., and Young, K.L. Observations of aeolian transport and niveo-aeolian deposition at three lowland sites, Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 2, (1991). 197–210.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackay, J.R. The origin of hummocks, western Arctic coast, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 17, (1980). 996–1006.Google Scholar
Mackay, J.R. Active layer slope movement in a continuous permafrost environment, Garry Island, Northwest Territories, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 18, (1981). 1666–1680.Google Scholar
Matsuoka, N. Solifluction rates, processes and landforms: a global review. Earth Science Reviews 55, (2001). 107–134.Google Scholar
Ovenden, L. Holocene proxy-climate data from the Canadian Arctic. Geological Survey of Canada Paper 88–22, (1988). 1–11.Google Scholar
Ping, C.L., Michaelson, G.J., Kimble, J.M., Romanovsky, V.E., Shur, Y.L., Swanson, D.K., and Walker, D.A. Cryogenesis and soil formation along a bioclimatic gradient in Arctic North America. Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences 113, (2008). G03S12 doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2008JG000744Google Scholar
Raup, H.M., (1965). Turf hummocks in the Mesters Vig District, Northeast Greenland. In Proceedings of the First International Conference on Permafrost. National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council, Publication No. 1287, Washington., pp. 43-50.Google Scholar
Raynolds, M.K., Walker, D.A., Munger, C.A., Vonlanthen, C.M., and Kade, A.N. A map analysis of patterned-ground along a North American transect. Journal of Geophysical Research 113, (2008). G03S03 http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007JG000512CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schunke, E., and Zoltai, S.C. Earth hummocks (thufur). Clark, M.J. Advances in Periglacial Geomorphology. (1988). Wiley, Chichester. 231–245.Google Scholar
Sturm, M., Liston, G.E., Benson, C.S., and Holmgren, J. Characteristics and growth of a snowdrift in Arctic Alaska, U.S.A. Arctic, Antarctic and. Alpine Research 33, (2001). 319–329.Google Scholar
Walker, D.A., Epstein, H.E., Romanovsky, V.E., Ping, C.L., Michaelson, G.J., Daanen, R.P., Shur, Y., Peterson, R.A., Krantz, W.B., Raynolds, M.K., Gould, W.A., Gonzalez, G., Nicolsky, D.J., Vonlanthen, C.M., Kade, A.N., Kuss, P., Kelley, A.M., Munger, C.A., Tarnocai, C.T., Matveyeva, N.V., and Daniëls, F.J.A. Arctic patterned-ground ecosystems: a synthesis of field studies and models along a North American transect. Journal of Geophysical Research 113, (2008). G03S01 http://dx.doi.org/10.1029/2007JG000504Google Scholar
Washburn, A.L. Classification of patterned ground and review of suggested origins. Bulletin of the Geological Society of America 67, (1956). 823–865.Google Scholar
Washburn, A.L. Geocryology: a survey of periglacial processes and environment. (1980). Wiley and Sons, New York.Google Scholar
Woo, M.-K., Edlund, S.A. and Young, K.L., (1991). Occurrence of early snow-free zones on Fosheim Peninsula, Ellesmere Island, Northwest Territories. Current Research, Part B, Geological Survey of Canada Paper 91-1B, 9-14.Google Scholar