Coastal Retreat Due to Thermodenudation on the Yugorsky Peninsula, Russia during the Last Decade, Update since 2001–2010

Abstract

Thermodenudation on the Kara seacoast, the Yugorsky Peninsula, Russia, is studied by analyzing remote-sensing data. Landforms resulting from the thaw of tabular ground ice, referred to as thermocirques, are formed due to polycyclic retrogressive thaw slumps, during the last decade 2010–2020. We calculate the retreat rate of the thermocirque edge using various statistical approaches. We compared thermocirque outlines by the end of each time interval defined by the dates of available very-high-resolution imagery. Six thermocirques within two key sites on the Yugorsky peninsula are monitored. We correlate each of the thermocirque edge’s retreat rates to various climatic parameters obtained at the Amderma weather station to understand the interrelation patterns better. As a result, we find a very low correlation between the retreat rate of each thermocirque and summer warmth, rainfall, and wave action. In general, the activity of thermodenudation decreases in time from the previous decade (2001–2010) to 2010–2020, and from 2010 towards 2020, although the summer warmth trend increases dramatically. A single thermocirque or series of thermocirques expand in response to environmental and geological factors in coastal retreat caused by thermodenudation.

Keywords

• photogrammetric processing
• multi-temporal remote sensing data
• permafrost processes
• retrogressive thaw slump
• tabular ground ice
• thermocirque