Spartakovskoye Lake Is the Disappearing Little Ice Age Periglacial Lake on the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago

Abstract

The last two releases of water from the periglacial Spartakovskoye Lake on Bolshevik Island (Severnaya Zemlya archipelago) were recorded in 2016 and 2021. After water release in 2016, observations of the lake level began. In 2021, almost complete draining of the lake was recorded by hourly images from a camera installed on the northern slope of the lake valley. The water flow through intraglacial channels from the lake of 0.33 km3 was up to 1590 m3/s during 57 hours of active drainage. Lake sediments accumulated 250–300 years ago were practically destroyed in just two to three months in 2021 and 2022 by active erosive, accumulative and slope processes at the bottom of after the lake emptied. The complete devastation of the lake was the first event after the damming of the lake by an outlet glacier at the beginning of the Little Ice Age (LIA), which began on the Severnaya Zemlya archipelago around 1600 AD. This means that at the end of the LIA, the periglacial lake is at the stage of degradation of the outlet glacier. Now it should be expected more frequent emptying of the lake instead of the previous periodic 5–10 year decreases in lake level.