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11 - The Illisarvik Drained-Lake Field Experiment: a Legacy of J. Ross Mackay

from Part II - Essays: Inspiring Fieldwork

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2020

By
Chris Burn
Edited by
Tim Burt  and
Des Thompson
Tim Burt
Affiliation:
Durham University
Des Thompson
Affiliation:
Scottish Natural Heritage
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Summary

The Illisarvik drained-lake field experiment (1997; Burn, 2015). Ross drained the oval-shaped, 300-m × 600-m, tundra lake in eight hours on 13 August 1978, to study the effects of permafrost development ab initio. The site, on Richards Island in the Mackenzie delta area, lies at the western Arctic coast. Lake Illisarvik drained out to the Beaufort Sea by thermal erosion of an ice-wedge system, facilitated by thaw beneath a trench, dug earlier in the summer above the ice wedges. Prior to drainage, the bowl-shaped body of unfrozen, lake-bottom sediments, surrounded by permafrost, was 32 m deep, beneath the middle of the lake. The site has been monitored continuously for 40 years, with observations in summer and winter. In Inuvialuktun, the language of the indigenous Inuvialuit, Illisarvik means ‘a place of learning’.

Type
Chapter
Information
Curious about Nature
A Passion for Fieldwork
 , pp. 156 - 160
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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References

Burn, C. R. (2015). J. Ross Mackay (1915–2014). Arctic 68, 129–131.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burn, C. R. and Kokelj, S. V. (2009). The environment and permafrost of the Mackenzie delta area. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 20, 83–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Church, M. (2017). Reconstructing periglacial geomorphology: the contribution of J. Ross Mackay. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 28, 517–522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kokelj, S. V., Lantz, T. C., Tunnicliffe, J., Segal, R. and Lacelle, D. (2017). Climate-driven thaw of permafrost preserved glacial landscapes, northwestern Canada. Geology 45, 371–374.Google Scholar
Mackay, J. R. (1977). Pulsating pingos, Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula, N.W.T. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 14, 209–222.Google Scholar
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Mackay, J. R. (1986). The first 7 years (1978-1985) of ice wedge growth, Illisarvik experimental drained lake site, western Arctic coast. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 23, 1782–1795.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackay, J. R. (1990). Seasonal growth bands in pingo ice. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 27, 1115–1125.Google Scholar
Mackay, J. R. (1997). A full-scale field experiment (1978–1995) on the growth of permafrost by means of lake drainage, western Arctic coast: a discussion of the method and some results. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 34, 17–33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mackay, J. R. and Burn, C. R. (2002). The first 20 years (1978/79 to 1998/99) of active-layer development, Illisarvik experimental drained lake site, western Arctic coast, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 39, 1657–1674.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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