Time-dependent morphology of thaw lakes and taliks in deep and shallow ground ice

The shape and depth of thaw lake basins depends on lake age, on whether the talik (thaw bulb) is at steady state, and on the distribution of ice in the ground. To investigate implications of this broad hypothesis, we use a numerical model of conductive heat transfer, phase change, and thaw subsidence of ice-rich sediment beneath a lake in cross section. For ground thermal properties with lake temperatures and dimensions consistent with measurements, modeled talik depth approximately increases with root time in lakes in deep ground ice which deepen more rapidly because of consolidation on thawing. In deep ground ice environments, basins achieve depths of approximate to 20 m in approximate to 5 ka. Expanding lakes with disequilibrium taliks have deep basins with broad, 100+ m wide, inclined margins. In shallow ground ice settings (either original epigenetic ice or in permafrost that has reformed in drained basins), lakes are < 3 m deep and flat bottomed. Unaffected by preexisting topography and ground ice variations, first-generation lakes in deep ground ice are rounder and grow larger in area than later-generation lakes. These predictions are consistent with GPS, sonar, and remote sensing measurements of bathymetry and plan view shape of first-and later-generation lakes in substrates with deep syngenetic ground ice (Pleistocene loess, northern Seward Peninsula, Alaska) and shallow epigenetic ice (Yukon Arctic coastal plain).