Sources of the Aeolian Material in Periglacial Conditions Based on Quartz Grain Analysis, Ebba Valley, Svalbard

Krzysztof Grzegorz Rymer; Lucyna Wachecka-Kotkowska

doi:10.14746/quageo-2024-0034

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Sources of the Aeolian Material in Periglacial Conditions Based on Quartz Grain Analysis, Ebba Valley, Svalbard

Quaestiones Geographicae

Volume 43 (2024): Issue 4 (December 2024)

By: Krzysztof Grzegorz Rymer and Lucyna Wachecka-Kotkowska

Open Access

|Nov 2024

Figures & Tables

Orthophotomap of the study area with nine aeolian deposition test sites (1–9) located within the Ebba Valley. Weather stations (E – Ebba Valley, S – Sven Glacier, and P – Pyramiden city) are marked with black stars. Orthophotomap source – Norwegian Polar Institute. Inner map shows the location of the study area (black arrows and circle) in the central Spitsbergen, High Arctic.

Geomorphological sketch of the study area (Ebba Valley, Svalbard). Modified after the original figure by Rachlewicz (2009).

Table 1.

Total number of quartz grains collected in the Ebba Valley in 2015–2018 divided into grain rounding and matting classes according to Cailleux (1942) with modification by Goździk (1995) and Mycielska-Dow-giałło and Woronko (1998).

Year	Class
Year	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU	Total
2015	83	45	213	55	215	126	737
2016	55	29	125	37	73	67	386
2017	40	8	64	27	59	14	212
2018	47	88	197	110	177	20	639

Percentage of quartz grains in the Ebba Valley in 2015–2018 divided into grain rounding and matting classes according to Cailleux (1942) with modification by Goździk (1995) and Mycielska-Dowgiałło and Woronko (1998).

Table 2.

Percentage of quartz grains collected in the Ebba Valley in 2015–2018 divided into grain rounding and matting classes according to Cailleux (1942) with modification by Goździk (1995) and Mycielska-Dow-giałło and Woronko (1998).

Year	Class
Year	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU
2015	11.3	6.1	28.9	7.5	29.2	17.1
2016	14.2	7.5	32.4	9.6	18.9	17.4
2017	18.9	3.8	30.2	12.7	27.8	6.6
2018	7.4	13.8	30.8	17.2	27.7	3.1

Table 3.

Test site name	Class
Test site name	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU	Total
The mouth of the valley with dense vegetation
1. Wet tundra	4	2	4	6	8	0	24
2. Dry tundra	2	0	2	1	7	2	14
The middle part of the valley floor with little or no vegetation
3. Leeward slope	9	0	11	3	7	4	34
4. Highest marine terrace top	12	8	31	16	26	11	104
5. Windward slope	38	66	151	82	139	54	530
6. Sandy surface	66	55	202	70	172	80	645
7. Central part of the valley	47	26	90	21	67	26	277
The upper part of the valley without vegetation cover
8. Sandur	12	5	23	20	28	14	102
9. Moraine	35	8	85	10	70	36	244

Percentage of quartz grains in the years 2015–2018 collected in Ebba Valley divided into grain rounding and matting classes according to Cailleux (1942) with modification by Goździk (1995) and Mycielska-Dowgiałło and Woronko (1998) at nine test sites.

Table 4.

Test site name	Class
Test site name	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU
The mouth of the valley with dense vegetation
1. Wet tundra	16.7	8.3	16.7	25.0	33.3	0.0
2. Dry tundra	14.3	0.0	14.3	7.1	50.0	14.3
The middle part of the valley floor with little or no vegetation
3. Leeward slope	26.5	0.0	32.4	8.8	20.6	11.8
4. Highest marine terrace top	11.5	7.7	29.8	15.4	25.0	10.6
5. Windward slope	7.2	12.5	28.5	15.5	26.2	10.2
6. Sandy surface	10.2	8.5	31.3	10.9	26.7	12.4
7. Central part of the valley	17.0	9.4	32.5	7.6	24.2	9.4
The upper part of the valley without vegetation cover
8. Sandur	11.8	4.9	22.5	19.6	27.5	13.7
9. Moraine	14.3	3.3	34.8	4.1	28.7	14.8

Table 5.

Spearman’s rank correlation coeffcient between different quartz grain types collected in the Ebba Valley and different meteorological variables. The red colour indicates a positive correlation. The blue colour indicates a negative correlation.

Parameter	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU
Average wind speed Ebba Valley	–0.01 p = 0.92	–0.02 p = 0.87	–0.03 p = 0.75	–0,14 p = 0.19	–0.05 p = 0.63	0.49 p < 0.01
Average wind speed Pyramiden	0.08 p = 0.43	–0.31 p < 0.01	–0.22 p = 0.04	–0.08 p = 0.47	0 p = 0.99	–0.01 p = 0.92
Average wind speed Sven Glacier	–0.04 p = 0.71	–0.1 p = 0.34	0.04 p = 0.73	–0.18 p = 0.08	–0.13 p = 0.23	0.45 p < 0.01
Average temperature Ebba Valley	–0.07 p = 0.52	0.31 p < 0.01	0.21 p = 0.05	0.03 p = 0.76	0.01 p = 0.91	0.23 p = 0.03
Total precipitation Longyearbyen	–0.08 p = 0.43	0.31 p < 0.01	0.22 p = 0.04	0.08 p = 0.47	0 p = 0.99	0.01 p = 0.92
Average air humidity Ebba Valley	–0.08 p = 0.46	0.08 p = 0.47	0.11 p = 0.3	0.05 p = 0.66	–0.07 p = 0.5	–0.26 p = 0.01

2015	Trap 1						Trap 2						Trap 3
2015	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU
Wet tundra	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dry tundra	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Leeward slope	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Highest marine terrace top	1	1	6	4	4	3	2	0	2	3	5	1	3	1	5	1	3	0
Windward slope	3	10	13	21	30	7	2	9	8	5	15	5	5	0	7	0	6	5
Sandy surface	26	0	68	5	65	57	9	2	13	0	10	4
Central part	10	3	30	3	27	3	2	8	10	3	6	5	3	4	7	3	5	4
Sandur	3	2	4	2	4	2	1	2	5	1	4	4	0	0	3	2	0	1
Moraine	10	1	18	1	21	13	3	2	6	0	8	9	0	0	8	0	2	3
2016	Trap 1						Trap 2						Trap 3
2016	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU
Wet tundra	2	0	3	2	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Dry tundra	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Leeward slope	4	0	4	0	2	3	0	0	0	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	0
Highest marine terrace top	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	2	0	0	0	4	3	1	0
Windward slope	7	6	21	9	13	6	7	3	11	0	6	11	4	1	22	0	5	15
Sandy surface	1	3	3	2	3	1	6	4	10	7	8	6	4	9	19	10	12	3
Central part	6	0	7	2	5	8	5	2	5	0	3	0
Sandur	1	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1
Moraine	0	0	0	0	1	3	5	0	7	0	3	5	2	0	4	0	4	2
2017	Trap 1						Trap 2						Trap 3
2017	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU
Wet tundra	1	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Dry tundra	0	0	0	0	2	1	2	0	0	1	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Leeward slope	2	0	1	1	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	2	0	1	0	0	0
Highest marine terrace top	0	0	1	0	2	3	1	1	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	3	0
Windward slope	1	1	3	2	2	0	1	2	7	3	6	2	1	0	11	4	4	0
Sandy surface	2	0	1	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	5	0	4	2	2	2
Central part	4	1	7	0	2	1	5	0	3	1	3	0	3	0	5	2	4	0
Sandur	1	0	1	0	2	2	1	1	2	3	2	1	0	0	1	1	4	1
Moraine	3	0	5	0	5	0	0	1	6	1	5	1	4	0	2	2	2	0
2018	Trap 1						Trap 2						Trap 3
2018	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU	C	EL	EM–EL	RM	EM–RM	NU
Wet tundra	1	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	3	2	0
Dry tundra	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Leeward slope	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	3	0
Highest marine terrace top	2	3	5	2	4	4	1	0	1	0	0	0	1	1	3	1	1	0
Windward slope	2	14	14	4	10	0	1	11	16	10	8	1	4	9	18	24	34	2
Sandy surface	3	12	32	5	22	1	5	18	41	10	16	4	5	6	11	27	33	2
Central part	2	3	3	2	4	1	3	3	4	3	4	4	4	2	9	2	4	0
Sandur	3	0	1	2	3	0	1	0	2	4	4	1	1	0	2	5	5	0
Moraine	2	0	8	1	6	0	3	4	6	2	7	0	3	0	15	3	6	0

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.14746/quageo-2024-0034 | Journal eISSN: 2081-6383 | Journal ISSN: 2082-2103 (formerly 0137-477X)

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Language: English

Page range: 179 - 191

Submitted on: Aug 21, 2024

Published on: Nov 6, 2024

Published by: Adam Mickiewicz University

In partnership with: Paradigm Publishing Services

Keywords:

aeolian processes,

polar desert,

sedimentary environments,

meteorological variables,

statistical analysis,

Arctic

Related subjects:

Geosciences,

Geography

© 2024 Krzysztof Grzegorz Rymer, Lucyna Wachecka-Kotkowska, published by Adam Mickiewicz University
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Volume 43 (2024): Issue 4 (December 2024)

Sources of the Aeolian Material in Periglacial Conditions Based on Quartz Grain Analysis, Ebba Valley, Svalbard

Figures & Tables

Fig. 1.

Fig. 2.

Table 1.

Fig. 3.

Table 2.

Table 3.

Fig. 4.

Table 4.

Table 5.

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