Earth’s Cryosphere, 2024, Vol. XXVIII, No. 1, p. 3-13.

GEOCRYOLOGICAL MONITORING AND FORECAST

TEMPERATURE CHANGES IN PERMAFROST AND GLACIER ICE IN THE HIGH-MOUNTAIN PART OF THE SUNTAR-KHAYATA RIDGE (NORTHEASTERN RUSSIA) FOR THE PERIOD 1957–2017

P.Ya. Konstantinov1,2,*, A.N. Fedorov1, R.N. Argunov1, P.V. Efremov1, T. Kadota3, T. Shirakawa4

1 Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Merzlotnaya St. 36, Yakutsk, 677010 Russia
2 Tomsk State University, Laboratory for Integrated Research of the Arctic Land–Shelf System, pr. Lenina 36, Tomsk, 634050 Russia
3 Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, 237-0061, 2-15 Natsushima-cho, Yokosuka, Japan
4 Kitami Institute of Technology, Faculty of Engineering, 090-8507, 165 Koen-cho, Kitami, Japan
*Corresponding author; e-mail: konstantinov@mpi.ysn.ru

In 1957–1959, according to the program of the 3rd International Geophysical Year, the temperature of rocks (to a depth of 20 m) and glacier ice (to a depth of 45 m) was measured in the area of a high-mountain weather station (glacier No. 31) in the central part pf the Suntar-Khayata Ridge (northeastern Russia). In 2012–2017, the Russian–Japanese expedition carried out new measurements of the temperature of rocks and glacier ice at the same places. A comparison of the data on the mean monthly temperatures of glacier ice at a depth of 10 m in 1958 and 2012 attests to their rise by 1.0–1.6°С. As there was no possibility to perform direct measurements of rock temperature at a depth of 20 m in 2012–2017, we used an indirect method to estimate it at the depth of zero annual amplitude. According to our estimate, in the past 60 years, it could have increased by up to 1.6°C. Regime studies of the dynamics of seasonal thawing were carried out at four experimental plots; of the dynamics of freezing of the seasonally thawed layer, at one plot.

Keywords: climate change, permafrost, glaciers, ground temperature, seasonal thaw, seasonal freezing.

Recommended citation: Konstantinov P.Ya., Fedorov A.N., Argunov R.N., Efremov P.V., Kadota T., Shirakawa T., 2024. Temperature changes in permafrost and glacier ice in the high-mountain part of the Suntar-Khayata Ridge (northeastern Russia) for the period 1957–2017. Earth’s Cryosphere XXVIII (1), 3–13.