Identifying historical and future potential lake drainage events on the western Arctic coastal plain of Alaska.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
1-1-2020
Department
Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences
Abstract
Arctic lakes located in permafrost regions are susceptible to catastrophic drainage. In this study, we reconstructed historical lake drainage events on the western Arctic Coastal Plain of Alaska between 1955 and 2017 using USGS topographic maps, historical aerial photography (1955), and Landsat Imagery (ca. 1975, ca. 2000, and annually since 2000). We identified 98 lakes larger than 10 ha that partially (>25% of area) or completely drained during the 62-year period. Decadal-scale lake drainage rates progressively declined from 2.0 lakes/yr (1955-1975), to 1.6 lakes/yr (1975-2000), and to 1.2 lakes/yr (2000-2017) in the ~30,000-km
Publication Title
Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
Recommended Citation
Jones, B.,
Arp, C.,
Grosse, G.,
Nitze, I.,
Lara, M.,
Whitman, M.,
Farquharson, L.,
Kanevskiy, M.,
Parsekian, A.,
Breen, A.,
Ohara, N.,
Rangel, R.,
&
Hinkel, K.
(2020).
Identifying historical and future potential lake drainage events on the western Arctic coastal plain of Alaska..
Permafrost and Periglacial Processes,
31(1), 110-127.
http://doi.org/10.1002/ppp.2038
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p/1743