2012/04/07 by Pier Paul Overduin, Sebastian Westermann, Kenji Yoshikawa +3
paper · doi:10.1029/2011jf002088
Submarine permafrost degradation rates may be determined by a number of interacting processes, including rates of sea level rise and coastal erosion, sea bottom temperature and salinity regimes, geothermal heat flux and heat and mass diffusion within the sediment column. Observations of ice‐bearing permafrost in shelf sediments are necessary in order to determine its spatial distribution and to quantify its degradation rate. We tested the use of direct current electrical resistivity to ice‐bearing permafrost in Elson Lagoon northeast of Barrow, Alaska (Beaufort Sea). A sharp increase in electrical resistivity was observed in profiles collected perpendicular to and along the coastline and is interpreted to be the boundary between ice‐free sediment and underlying ice‐bearing submarine permafrost. The depth to the interpreted ice‐bearing permafrost increases from −1 .