The hydrologic significance of nivation features in permafrost areas
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26485/BP/1978/27/1Keywords:
rillwash, solifluction, snowpatches, active layer interflowAbstract
Many accounts of nivation activity stress the role of snowpatches in supplying water to the area immediately downslope, thereby facilitating extensive rillwash and solifluction. It is often assumed that melt of the snowpatch itself provides the main source of water. Runoff measurements and dye-tracing observations carried out on perennial snowpatches in the Canadian Arctic indicate that the main source of runoff in nivation features is active layer interflow, brought to the surface by the absence of a thawed zone beneath snowpatches.
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