Deep Insights into the Past: Terrestrial Permafrost Drilling Campaigns

Abstract

Permafrost thaw is associated with impacts on climate, land surface and coastal and river bank structures. Thermokarst and thermoerosion, for example, are thaw processes that lead to ground subsidence. Two main factors of surface subsidence vulnerability are the sedimentological composition, including ground ice content, and the temperature state of permafrost. This surface destabilization is getting relevant because of a potential positive feedback of deep thaw to the global climate system through the release of greenhouse gases trapped beneath or in the permafrost, as well as through the release of so far freeze-locked old carbon by microbial decomposition. With these facts in mind the overarching aims of our drilling campaigns were to retrieve deep (> 50m) frozen and unfrozen sediment cores including sediments, ice, and organic components