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What and where are periglacial landscapes?

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  • Julian B. Murton

Abstract

Uncertainties about landscape evolution under cold, nonglacial conditions raise a question fundamental to periglacial geomorphology: what and where are periglacial landscapes? To answer this, with an emphasis on lowland periglacial areas, the present study distinguishes between characteristic and polygenetic periglacial landscapes, and considers how complete is the footprint of periglaciation? Using a conceptual framework of landscape sensitivity and change, the study applies four geological criteria (periglacial persistence, extraglacial regions, ice‐rich substrates, and aggradation of sediment and permafrost) through the last 3.5 million years of the late Cenozoic to identify permafrost regions in the Northern Hemisphere. In limited areas of unglaciated permafrost regions are characteristic periglacial landscapes whose morphology has been adjusted essentially to present (i.e., Holocene interglacial) process conditions, namely thermokarst landscapes, and mixed periglacial–alluvial and periglacial–deltaic landscapes. More widespread in past and present permafrost regions are polygenetic periglacial landscapes, which inherit ancient landsurfaces on which periglacial landforms are superimposed to varying degrees, presently or previously. Such landscapes comprise relict accumulation plains and aprons, frost‐susceptible and nonfrost‐susceptible terrains, cryopediments, and glacial–periglacial landscapes. Periglaciation can produce topographic fingerprints at mesospatial scales (103–105 m): (1) relict accumulation plains and aprons form where long‐term sedimentation buried landsurfaces; and (2) plateaux with convexo–concave hillslopes and inset with valleys, formed by bedrock brecciation, mass wasting, and stream incision in frost‐susceptible terrain.

Suggested Citation

  • Julian B. Murton, 2021. "What and where are periglacial landscapes?," Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 32(2), pages 186-212, April.
  • Handle: RePEc:wly:perpro:v:32:y:2021:i:2:p:186-212
    DOI: 10.1002/ppp.2102
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hugh French, 2008. "Recent contributions to the study of past permafrost," Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(2), pages 179-194, April.
    2. Yuri Shur & Kenneth M. Hinkel & Frederick E. Nelson, 2005. "The transient layer: implications for geocryology and climate‐change science," Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), pages 5-17, January.
    3. V. I. Astakhov & F. A. Kaplyanskaya & V. D. Tarnogradsky, 1996. "Pleistocene permafrost of West Siberia as a deformable glacier bed," Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(2), pages 165-191, April.
    4. Alexandra Veremeeva & Stanislav Gubin, 2009. "Modern tundra landscapes of the Kolyma Lowland and their evolution in the Holocene," Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(4), pages 399-406, October.
    5. Julian B. Murton, 2005. "Ground‐ice stratigraphy and formation at North Head, Tuktoyaktuk Coastlands, western Arctic Canada: a product of glacier–permafrost interactions," Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(1), pages 31-50, January.
    6. C. R. Burn & S. V. Kokelj, 2009. "The environment and permafrost of the Mackenzie Delta area," Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(2), pages 83-105, April.
    7. Daniel Fortier & Michel Allard & Yuri Shur, 2007. "Observation of rapid drainage system development by thermal erosion of ice wedges on Bylot Island, Canadian Arctic Archipelago," Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(3), pages 229-243, July.
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    1. Juan Pedro Rodríguez-López & Chihua Wu & Tatiana A. Vishnivetskaya & Julian B. Murton & Wenqiang Tang & Chao Ma, 2022. "Permafrost in the Cretaceous supergreenhouse," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.

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