An ‘open system pingo’ near Kangerlussuaq (Søndre Strømfjord),West Greenland

Abstract

Some of the most conspicuous structures generated in permafrost regions are pingos, conical hills containing an ice lens. Collapse structures of Pleistocene pingos are known from many sites in Europe (e.g. Washburn, 1973; Pissart, 1988), and active pingos have been described from the Antarctic, Siberia, Canada, Alaska, Spitzbergen and Greenland; in central West Greenland examples are found on Disko island and the Nuussuaq peninsula (Müller, 1959; Weidick, 1971, 1974; Scholz, 1984). No pingos have hitherto been reported from southern West Greenland, although the surficial geology of the region has been investigated in some detail (e.g. Weidick, 1968, 1974; Hansen, 1970; Hårløv et al., 1980; Scholz & Grottenthaler, 1988; Dijkmans & Törnqvist, 1991). This article describes a large and presumably active pingo discovered in August 1996 by the first author, east of the airport at Kangerlussuaq (Søndre Strømfjord) (Fig. 1).