Kolyma River's Annual Thaw

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Text, Earth Watch, Exploring the blue planet by satellite. Earth Observatory. Earth Observatory dot nasa dot gov. Operational Land Imager, Landsat 8 satellite. Kolyma River's Annual Thaw.

 

June 16, 2019. For about 8 months of the year, Siberia's Kolyma River is frozen to depths of several meters. The Kolyma River is labeled on the left side of the image.

 

Text, Every June, the river thaws, carrying vast amounts of suspended sediment and organic material into the Arctic Ocean.

 

This surge of fresh, soil-ridden waters colors the Kolyma Gulf dark brown and black.

 

The Kolyma Gulf is labeled north of the Kolyma River. Text, The Kolyma is the largest river system underlain with continuous permafrost.

 

It is fed primarily by spring snowmelt and summer rainfall.

 

In this subarctic region, the East Siberian Sea remained covered with ice even in June.

 

The ice-covered East Siberian Sea is labeled northeast of the Kolyma Gulf. Text, Researchers have collected samples from two of the Kolyma's tributaries, finding carbon-rich permafrost from the Pleistocene era (1.8 million to 12,000 years ago).

 

Permafrost degradation caused by climate change could expose more ancient organic matter to the river system.

 

To learn more, go to earth observatory dot nasa dot gov.