Recent regional climate cooling on the Antarctic Peninsula and associated impacts on the cryosphere

The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) is often described as a region with one of the largest warming trends on Earth since the 1950s, based on the temperature trend of 0.54°C/decade during 1951-2011 recorded at Faraday/Vernadsky station. Accordingly, most works describing the evolution of the natural systems in the AP region cite this extreme trend as the underlying cause of their observed changes. However, a recent analysis (Turner et al., 2016) has shown that the regionally stacked temperature record for the last three decades has shifted from a warming trend of 0.32°C/decade during 1979-1997 to a cooling trend of -0.47°C/decade during 1999-2014. While that study focuses on the period 1979-2014, averaging the data over the entire AP region, we here update and re-assess the spatially-distributed temperature trends and inter-decadal variability from 1950 to 2015, using data from ten stations distributed across the AP region. We show that Faraday/Vernadsky warming trend is an extreme case, circa twice those of the long-term records from other parts of the northern AP. Our results also indicate that the cooling initiated in 1998/1999 has been most significant in the N and NE of the AP and the South Shetland Islands (>0.5°C between the two last decades), modest in the Orkney Islands, and absent in the SW of the AP. This recent cooling has already impacted the cryosphere in the northern AP, including slow-down of glacier recession, a shift to surface mass gains of the peripheral glacier and a thinning of the active layer of permafrost in northern AP islands.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Calcareous nannofossils from the Upper Cretaceous of northern James Ross Island, Antarctica : a pilot study

The Czech scientific expedition to northern James Ross Island, Antarctica has tested the use of calcareous nannofossils as a possible tool for stratigraphic correlation of Cretaceous and Neogene strata. Only a few samples with poor nannofossil content gave useful information for biostratigraphy. The Lower Campanian Chiastozygus garrisonii Zone and Gephyrobiscutum diabolum Subzone, respectively, was established in the lower part of the Santa Marta Formation, Lachman Crags Member, from the common occurrence of Gephyrobiscutum diabolum associated with Broinsonia parca parca and Acuturris scotus. Deposits of the Late Miocene Mendel Formation yielded exclusively reworked nannofossils from the older Upper Cretaceous deposits. Nannofossils indicate at least two distinct stratigraphic levels: Middle Coniacian and Santonian–basal Campanian, and these must have been sourced from the immediate area. The majority of the marine deposit samples studied were barren of nannofossils, probably due to late diagenetic secondary decalcification

Active layer thermal regime in two climatically contrasted sites of the Antarctic Peninsula region

Permafrost controls geomorphic processes in ice-free areas of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) region. Future climate trends will promote significant changes of the active layer regime and permafrost distribution, and therefore a better characterization of present-day state is needed. With this purpose, this research focuses on Ulu Peninsula (James Ross Island) and Byers Peninsula (Livingston Island), located in the area of continuous and discontinuous permafrost in the eastern and western sides of the AP, respectively. Air and ground temperatures in as low as 80 cm below surface of the ground were monitored between January and December 2014. There is a high correlation between air temperatures on both sites (r=0.74). The mean annual temperature in Ulu Peninsula was -7.9 ºC, while in Byers Peninsula was -2.6 ºC. The lower air temperatures in Ulu Peninsula are also reflected in ground temperatures, which were between 4.9 (5 cm) and 5.9 ºC (75/80 cm) lower. The maximum active layer thickness observed during the study period was 52 cm in Ulu Peninsula and 85 cm in Byers Peninsula. Besides climate, soil characteristics, topography and snow cover are the main factors controlling the ground thermal regime in both areas.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Sedimentary evidence for an ice-sheet dammed lake in a mountain valley of the Eastern Sudetes, Czechia

An accumulation of glacial sediments is located near Písečná village in the depression between the Sokol Ridge and Zlaté Hory Highlands NNE of Jeseník town (Eastern Sudetes). The accumulation lies at the lateral side of the mountain valley of the Bělá River and fills a preglacial palaeovalley of this river. Research combining facies analysis of outcrops, ground penetrating radar survey, interpretation drilling survey, and modelling of the preglacial relief was undertaken at the site. According to the results obtained, the upper part of the sedimentary accumulation represents a coarse-grained terminoglacial glaciofluvial delta of the Gilbert type. The development of the accumulation has dominantly been driven by the preglacial morphology. Facies typical for foresets of coarse-grained deltas represented mainly by high-density flows, cohesionless debris flows, debris falls and less common low-density flows were found in the outcrops. The delta near Písečná prograded into a lake dammed by the ice-sheet front in the north. The lake was bounded by the slopes of Sokol Ridge, Zlaté Hory Highlands and Góry Parkowe on other sides. The lake level reached an altitude of up to 430 m a.s.l., as the coarse-grained delta plain base lies at this level

Influence of solution thermal and structural history on the nucleation of m-hydroxybenzoic acid polymorphs

The influence of solution pretreatment on primary nucleation of m-hydroxybenzoic acid has been investigated through 550 cooling crystallization experiments. The metastable zone width has been determined at constant cooling rate, and the time and temperature of the preceding superheating step have been varied. m-Hydroxybenzoic acid has two polymorphs, and the influence of the polymorph used to prepare the solutions has also been investigated. There is an overall tendency in the experiments for the solution to exhibit a larger metastable zone width if it is superheated for a longer time and at a higher temperature, but under the investigated conditions this tendency is not very strong. The results show that the metastable form II preferentially crystallizes in all experiments and in particular when the solution has been more strongly superheated for several hours. However, when the time and/or the temperature of superheating is reduced, there is an increasing tendency to obtain the stable form I. This is most clearly found for solutions prepared by dissolving form I. When the solutions are prepared by dissolution of form II, this tendency is weaker in what appears to be a systematic way. It is hypothesized that, unless the solution is strongly superheated for several hours, it will contain for a significant period of time clusters of solute molecules that can retain some degree of structure from the dissolved crystal. This leads to ";memory" effects in the solution, which may influence subsequent nucleation. The work includes a comprehensive review of previous published work on the influence of thermal history on nucleation in solutions and melts

Quantifying sediment sources, pathways, and controls on fluvial transport dynamics on James Ross Island, Antarctica

Proglacial regions are enlarging across the Antarctic Peninsula as glaciers recede in a warming climate. However, despite the increasing importance of proglacial regions as sedi ment sources within cold environments, very few studies have considered fluvial sediment dynamics in polar settings and spatio-temporal variability in sediment delivery to the oceans has yet to be unravelled. In this study, we show how air temperature, precipitation, and ground conditions combine to control sediment loads in two catchments on James Ross Island, Antarctica. We estimate that the sediment load for the Bohemian Stream and Algal Stream over the 50 day study period, the average sediment load was 1.18 ± 0.63 t km⁻² d⁻¹ and 1.73 ± 1.02 t km⁻² d⁻¹ , respectively. Both catchments show some sensitivity to changes in precipitation and air temperature, but the Algal catchment also shows some sensitivity to active layer thaw. The downstream changes in sediment provenance are controlled by underlying lithology, while differences in sediment load peaks between the two catchments appear to be primarily due to differing glacier and snowfield coverage. This identification of the controls on sediment load in this sub-polar environment provides insight into how other fluvial systems across the Antarctic Peninsula could respond as glaciers recede in a warming climate

Proglacial lake evolution coincident with glacier dynamics in the frontal zone of Kvíárjökull, South-East Iceland

The termini of Icelandic glaciers are highly dynamic environments. Pronounced changes in frontal ablation in recent years have consequently changed ice dynamics. In this study, we reveal the inter-seasonal dynamics of the Kvíárjökull ablation zone and proglacial zone using ArcticDEM and Sentinel-2 images acquired between 2011 and 2021 and intra-seasonal dynamics with repeated UAV surveys during summer 2021. Average glacier surface velocity in the ablation zone ranged from 51 m year−1 in 2015 up to 199 m year−1 in 2018, with maxima within the axial zone of the glacier and minima on the glacier edges. Coincidentally, and in accordance with glacier retreat/advance, the ice-marginal proglacial lake fluctuated in its area, and we interpret that it was also a key factor in the development of the glacier terminus morphology. A complex spatial pattern of glacier surface elevation changes, including thickening in the frontal true left margin of the terminus, is interpreted to be due to variable subglacial topography, relatively fast ice flow from the accumulation zone and an insulating effect of glacier surface debris cover. In contrast, the true right (southern) part of the glacier terminus experienced thinning and retreat/disintegration also during the 2021 summer season, which we attribute to enhanced frontal ablation connected to the intrusion of lake water into the crevassed glacier terminus. Overall, this study suggests that where glaciers are developing ice-marginal lakes complex patterns of glacier dynamics and mass loss can be expected, which will confound understanding of the short-term evolution of these environments