Thermokarst Discovery, July 2003

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While scouting research locations on the Lower Kuparuk River, we noticed that the Toolik River seemed very turbid, brown with suspended sediment. Flying back toward Toolik Lake, we followed the Toolik River to a small tributary, and evenually found this scene. A very large permafrost failure had occurred beneath a small stream and the water was now moving soils from the failure down to the Toolik.

Thermokarst failure	Closer view of thermokarst failure, note shading created by depression
Sediment-laden water emerging from the downstream end of this failure. Note the "upwelling" in the lower left of the picture.	Close up of an upwelling spot.
Close up of subsurface ice (pointy feature) and soil.	Significant chasm formed as a result of the failure.
Breck Bowden and waterfall on the tundra. Note: Breck is about 6 ft. 2 in. tall!!!	From the spot where Breck is standing in the last picture, this is a view of where the water is going, layers of soil, ice.
Just upstream of the failure, looking toward it.	The location of this failure was a few miles north of the haul road/pipeline. It's existance has spurred our thoughts about the impacts of climate change across the arctic tundra and whether effects will be gradual across the landscape or abrupt in very focused locations...