Seawater Intrusion on the Arctic Coast (Svalbard): The Concept of Onshore-Permafrost Wedge

Abstract

Numerous hydrogeological studies on the coastal zone describe the intrusion of sea water inland, salting underground aquifers. The phenomenon is commonly observed in the coasts outside polar areas. However, the impact of sea water has so far not been an object of detailed investigation in a periglacial environment devoid of subsea permafrost. Geophysical measurements at the west coast of the Wedel-Jarlsberg Land in Svalbard indicate that the border between the unfrozen seabed and the frozen ground onshore is not delimited by the shoreline. A zone of coastal unfrozen ground is located under a thin layer of permafrost reaching toward the sea. This state was observed with the use of electrical resistivity tomography under rocky headlands and capes, uplifted marine terraces located at the foot of mountain massifs and valley mouths as well as in the marginal zone of the Werenskiold Glacier. This short article presents the results of such a measurement, supplemented with electromagnetic detection. The measurements are unique in that they were conducted not only on the land surface, but also at the floor of the sea bay during the low water spring tide. The author proposes name structures detected in the coastal zone as a “permafrost wedge”, extending an identification of the permafrost base between the coast and the glaciers of Svalbard. However, in the absence of boreholes that would allow determining the thermal state of the ground in the study sites, the concept is based only on the interpretation of the geophysical imaging. Therefore, further discussion is required on whether the identified contrasts in electrical resistivity indeed result from thermal differences between the rocks or if they only indicate the cryotic state of the ground (saline cryopeg) within the range of seawater intrusion.