Current Projects
Pingo SubTerranean Aquifer Reconnaissance and Reconstruction
Mars, Ceres, and the Earth have abundant reserves of ground ice. On Earth, ice-cored mounds known as pingos are important indicators of extant and extinct near-surface groundwater systems, hydrogeologic properties, and local climate1. Spacecraft observations of Mars and Ceres have revealed a variety of deca- to kilometer scale hills with morphological similarities to terrestrial pingos in ice-rich environments2,3,4,5,. Domes observed on Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto also resemble these ice-cored structures6,7,8. These potential hydrologically controlled pingo-like features (PLFs) represent unique science targets that may contain information regarding groundwater history, hydrologic properties, and habitability due to their formation by liquid water. For these reasons, identifying, characterizing, and determining the origin of possible PLFs on Mars and Ceres are high priority science objectives related to the history of water in the solar system. They also represent potential resource deposits for future explorers. The difficulty in characterizing potential PLFs and their formation processes on Mars and Ceres is their small size and the buried nature of any supporting ice structure.
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Pingo STARR is advancing human and lander scale geophysical techniques specifically tailored to detect, characterize, and investigate the cryohydrology and genesis of possible PLFs on Earth, Mars, and Ceres. This systems-level field campaign will be the most comprehensive to date for any terrestrial pingos, and the first dedicated analysis of pingos from a planetary science perspective. Our science and technology objectives will provide valuable insight into detecting and characterizing ground -ice and -water systems on Mars and Ceres.
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To understand PLFs and prepare for their direct exploration, we turn to pingos in the North American Arctic. Despite the existence of ~11,000 pingos on Earth9, only a handful have been studied for prolonged durations, and few have been surveyed using geophysical methods10,11,12. We will investigate the predominantly unexplored subsurface structures of some of the largest hydrostatic pingos on Earth in the North American Arctic. This field program seeks to identify the connections between the structural elements of pingos, their overlying morphology, and their underlying hydrology; and characterize a pingo ‘lifecycle’ as a process analog for past and present PLF generating hydrologic systems on Mars and Ceres by acquiring an unprecedentedly thorough and detailed geophysical data set.
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Pingo STARR’s first field deployment was in spring 2021 south of Deadhorse, Alaska, the second deployment was to Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories in spring 2023, and a third field deployment is scheduled to return to Tuktoyaktuk in spring 2024. In 2021, the Pingo STARR team collected eight TEM soundings and nearly 2km each of resistivity and GPR transects at 50, 100, and 200MHz over our season 1 pingos. Initial data analysis suggests both confirmation of hydrostatic pingo formation theory and new unexpected insights into shallow talik formation in the high Arctic as well as pingo core disintegration mechanisms.
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Pingo STARR is a funded through NASA's Planetary Science and Technology Through Analog Research (PSTAR) Program.
Follow the Water
Across the warming Arctic, active layer depths are increasing, permafrost is thawing, and more hydrological inputs area affecting periglacial environments. This project, led by Dr. Eric Klein from the University of Alaska Anchorage, aims to resolve a critical knowledge gap in Arctic hydrology by understanding the changing sources and seasonal timing of river discharge in high northern latitudes. The core objective is to determine the relative contribution of two principal sources of river discharge in a warming Arctic: Active Layer Flow and Glacier Melt. The central hypothesis guiding this effort is that in a future warmer and wetter Arctic, the increasing and more persistent contribution from active layer flow will help offset discharge losses from reduced glacier ice, leading to a significant seasonal redistribution of flow.
The investigation employs a comprehensive field and modeling approach centred around Pittufik, Greenland. This location provides a unique natural laboratory, allowing for the comparison and contrast of river systems across a glacial gradient, from glacier-free (periglacial-dominated) watersheds to those highly connected to glacial melt sources. Measurements of multiple components of the Arctic water cycle are being done to characterize the timing and origin (glacial vs. periglacial) of river discharge, focusing particularly on discharge in non-summer seasons, such as late fall. These measurements include hydrogeochemical samples, stream depth and flow rates, active layer thicknesses, and geophysical characterization of the ground ice environment.
This research is funded by the National Science Foundation.
Rock and Roll: Examining Changing Rock Glacier Kinematics in North America
Rock glaciers represent significant, yet understudied, hydrological resources and are simultaneously indicators of, and resilient to, climate change. While changes in glacial ice and ice-rich permafrost are well-documented, the response of rock glaciers, often assumed to be insulated by their rock mantle, remains enigmatic. Recent observations of increased flow rates in some regions suggest a complex interplay between warming permafrost conditions, liquid water lubrication, and internal structure, which requires systematic investigation across diverse climatic settings. This research addresses the fundamental lack of comprehensive understanding regarding the structure, distribution, and flow dynamics of rock glaciers in two extreme environments of North America.
This multifaceted, multi-year project utilizes a geomorphic and geophysical science program to constrain the structural and dynamic behavior of rock glaciers across three climatically and latitudinally distinct mountain ranges: the Brooks Mountains (cold, dry Arctic Alaska), the Chugach Mountains (warmer, maritime Southcentral Alaska), and the Chic-Choc Mountains (low-elevation, Quebec’s Gaspé peninsula). The primary scientific objectives are to: (1) characterize the broad external structure and flow dynamics of rock glaciers across these three ranges; (2) characterize the internal structure (ice content and liquid water presence) of key rock glaciers at each site; and (3) systematically describe how the relationships between morphology, dynamics, and internal structure can be generalized to understand rock glaciers globally. To achieve these objectives, this project integrates advanced remote sensing with high-resolution field geophysics. Historical imagery, space-based radar interferometry, and LiDAR terrain models are used to track surface velocity and constrain dynamic evolution, whereas ground penetrating radar and thermal infrared imaging are used to estimate ground ice content, structure, and distribution.
By combining remote sensing and geophysical data, this research is establishing crucial baselines for current and future monitoring of periglacial and permafrost environments. Ultimately, the results will produce a robust framework for understanding and predicting how degrading ground ice-rich environments, specifically rock glaciers, are responding to climate change, and the potential impacts of thawing rock glacier ice on water resources for downstream communities and infrastructure in alpine and Arctic environments.
Chill Hills: Exploring Ceres’ Hydrology and Geology Through Pingo-like Morphologies
High resolution Dawn spacecraft observations over Occator and Urvara craters on Ceres revealed an abundance of small, quasi-symmetric conical mounds, many of which bear significant similarities to terrestrial pingos. Similar features have also been observed on Mars, but their nature and origin remain open questions. These pingo-shaped hills on Ceres have diameters as large as approximately 1000 meters and are resolvable to as little as several 10s of meters. A large fraction of these features occur in areas suspected of melting, or of being covered by water-rich melt during or shortly after impact, and now contain high concentrations of subsurface ice. This further suggests a possible genetic similarity to pingos. These pingo candidates are unique science targets whose investigation may provide insights into the geological, hydrological, and astrobiological properties of Ceres.
The Chill Hills project is employing geologic mapping and spatial clustering techniques to identify and morphologically classify pingo candidates on Ceres. These mounds are being analyzed for context and correlation with geologic units and structures identified in published maps of Occator, Urvara, and the intervening region in order to determine their regional- and local-scale geologic affinities. Non-parametric clustering algorithms are being applied to identify major centers of hill formation and are determining if any of the hills are meaningfully correlated with surface geological structures or structure traces. We are also using high-resolution Dawn stereo topography to characterize various morphometric aspects of identified anomalous hills on Ceres. In the future we will collect similar morphometric data from potential terrestrial morphological analogues such as pingos, volcanic cones, karst hills, kames, and drumlins. We will then use these data to identify systematic morphological traits in common between the cerean hills and various potential terrestrial analogues through statistically driven comparative planetology. This analysis will increase our understanding of the origin of cerean hills and quantitatively estimate their morphometric similarity to pingos and other terrestrial hill-forms.
These potentially icy hills on Ceres represent a class of landform never before observed on a small body. By better constraining the structural and geological relationships, geospatial distribution, and morphometric affinities of these potential pingo candidates, this project is providing insights into the nature and evolution of possible hydrogeologic systems throughout the solar system.
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The Chill Hills project is funded through NASA's Discovery Data Analysis Program (DDAP).