title: Accelerated thermokarst formation in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, Antarctica.
abstract: Thermokarst is a land surface lowered and disrupted by melting ground ice. Thermokarst is a major driver of landscape change in the Arctic, but has been considered to be a minor process in Antarctica. Here, we use ground-based and airborne LiDAR coupled with timelapse imaging and meteorological data to show that 1) thermokarst formation has accelerated in Garwood Valley, Antarctica; 2) the rate of thermokarst erosion is presently ~ 10 times the average Holocene rate; and 3) the increased rate of thermokarst formation is driven most strongly by increasing insolation and sediment/albedo feedbacks. This suggests that sediment enhancement of insolation-driven melting may act similarly to expected increases in Antarctic air temperature (presently occurring along the Antarctic Peninsula), and may serve as a leading indicator of imminent landscape change in Antarctica that will generate thermokarst landforms similar to those in Arctic periglacial terrains.
authors.affiliation: Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA. joe.levy@utexas.edu
authors.forename: Joseph S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Levy
authors.forename: Andrew G
authors.initials: AG
authors.lastname: Fountain
authors.forename: James L
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Dickson
authors.forename: James W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Head
authors.forename: Marianne
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Okal
authors.forename: David R
authors.initials: DR
authors.lastname: Marchant
authors.forename: Jaclyn
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Watters