Freezeup Processes on Arctic Beaches

Abstract

Observations made along the northern Alaskan coast during 1972 served to indicate the processes by which arctic winter beach features are formed. In sub-zero (centigrade) temperatures ice forms on the surface of brackish lagoonal and estuarine waters, and is often moved offshore by wind-generated and tidal currents. When waves, wind, and storm surges coincide with the presence of ice in the nearshore zone, the ice and frozen swash mass are deposited contiguously with sediment on the beach as distinctive ice and ice-sediment structures. These structures include ice-slush berms, ice-sediment interbedding, and buried ice boulders.