permafrost

Imaggeo on Mondays: The surprising beauty of the Arctic tundra

Alexandra Loginova July 15, 2019

Siberian Arctic: “On the top of sopka”. Credit: Alexandra Loginova (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Close your eyes and try to imagine first thing which comes to your mind, when somebody says “Tundra”. What would you imagine? Being a master student, I imagined cold, flat and a dead field. In fact, Tundra turn out to be completely different, at least in September 2010, when I and my colleagues were lucky to visit it. As it is well known from textbooks no big trees grows in Tundra, how ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Exploring ice in the deep

Renato R. Colucci December 3, 2018

Exploring ice in the deep. Credit: Renato R. Colucci (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

The occurrence of sporadic permafrost in the Alps often needs challenging fieldwork in order to be investigated. Here in the high altitude karstic plateau of Mt. Canin-Kanin (2587 m asl) in the Julian Alps (southeastern European Alps) several permanent ice deposits have been recently investigated highlighting how also in such more resilient environments global warming is acting rapidly. Important ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Arctic cottongrass in Svalbard

Olivia Trani July 2, 2018

Eriophorum scheuchzeri spp. arcticum. Credit: Gunnar Mallon (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

In the High Arctic, where vegetation is limited in height, cottongrass stands out as some of the tallest plant species around. This photo shows a wispy white patch of Arctic cottongrass growing amongst other tundra vegetation in the Advent river floodplain of Adventdalen, a valley on the Norwegian archipelago island Svalbard. Svalbard is of particular scientific interest as it is a relatively warm ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Mother Tree

Laura Roberts-Artal March 28, 2016

Landlocked, home to mountains, deserts and the southernmost permafrost territories, Mongolia’s climate is harsh. Warm, often humid summers, give way to freezing winters where temperatures dip as low as -25°C. Rainfall is restricted to a short period in the summer months of June and August. These climatic factors, combined with the lack of a strong forest management strategy and anthropogenic infl ...[Read More]