Earth’s Cryosphere, 2022, Vol. XXVI, No. 1, p. 32-39

CURRENT STATE OF PERIGLACIAL LAKES ON SVALBARD

R.A. Chernov¹, K.V. Romashova²

1 Institute of Geography, Russian Academy of Sciences, Staromonetnyi per. 29, Moscow, 119017 Russia; chernov@igras.ru
2 Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, Beringa str. 38, Saint Petersburg, 199397 Russia

The current state of periglacial lakes on Svalbard and their quantitative estimates are presented. These lakes were formed in depressions upon recent recession of glaciers on the archipelago. Based on the Norwegian aerial imagery 2008–2012 and mosaics of Maxar Vivid 2013–2019 images of Svalbard, 629 new periglacial lakes have been identified in the areas released from glaciers. The map of new lakes and their distribution across the territory by different heights are presented. Most of periglacial lakes are located in the western and southern parts of Svalbard, where large-scale retreat of the glaciers has been observed. At the same time, new periglacial lakes are formed mostly in the northern and eastern parts of the archipelago, where most of the lakes have ice coasts. The total length of ice coasts of 306 lakes in 2008–2019 reached 233.8 ± 0.6 km, which is comparable with the length of the fronts of Svalbard outlet glaciers. The total area of periglacial lakes is 173.1 ± 0.7 km2, and their total water volume ranges from 2.1 to 2.3 ± 0.1 km3.

Periglacial lakes, ice-contact lake, glacier retreat, lake area, Svalbard