(Photo: Wiebke Kaiser) Flooding along the modern floodplain. Note old research station in the background. Last week began with a spell of warm weather, melting ice on the island and on the frozen Lena River, and led eventually to the arrival of this spring's flood to the Lena River Delta.In this post we describe this flood's arrival and now aftermath on our island.

 

Samoylov Island is composed of two major geographical parts: the Holocene terrace covered by ice-crack polygon structures and the sandy modern floodplain. In the last week we have seen much of the modern floodplain covered in water, and many of the cliffs descending from the flood terrace erode into the rushing water. This flood is the result of the slow movement of water melting northwards, generating large ice blocks and dams across Lena. The flood moves north in fits and spurts, as the accumulated snow of central Yakutia melts and moves into the once-frozen river channels.

 

(Photo: Wiebke Kaiser) Flooding along a small inlet channelIn the middle of last week there was a little thunderstorm. During the next days it became colder – and from the North the fog arrived the next evening. Suddenly the sun was over and for the next days it was not possible to see Stolb or the other mountains surrounding the main channels of the Delta. The Lena wasn't moving at all, and everything was quiet, though we knew from internet reports that the main spring flood event should arrive soon. But then slowly the water began to rise again – only a little bit at first. In the night to Saturday, 1 June, it started snowing again. We asked whether June can really bring winter back again! By Saturday night we noticed that the ice is moving again along the river.

(Photo: Wiebke Kaiser) Flooding along the cliff's edgeOn Sunday the weather changed again. It was finally possible to see the other side of the buy filters for dse 905 electronic cigarette starter kits Lena's banks. But more importantly, the whole river changed: so many huge icebergs were moving very quickly along the river. The Lena showed almost no open water any more: everywhere was ice and so fast! It was so impressive to see this moving ice! We were outside almost the whole day – watching. And the water level was rising and rising, too. In the night the water started flooding the channel between the old and the new station, nearly turning our island into several smaller islands. This is what it feels like in a low-lying delta (and the Arctic's largest)...you see more and more of your walking pathways flooded, and do not know when to expect the rise to end.

Monday the flood peaked. The peak this year may have been less severe than in other years because the river channels around Samoylov had already thawed out, allowing our local collection of ice to drift away before the arrival of the main flood. By Monday evening it seemed that the water level again fell a little bit with less ice passing, but still moving quickly. We put on our rubber boots, dragged out our GPS and notebook, and walked the extent of this year's flood so that this summer's scientists working on the modern floodplain will know which parts were inundated by the flood.

Now, two days later, most of the moving ice has passed us, but the flood has left its mark. The cliffs off of the polygon terrace are a bit more eroded, there are large ice bergs remnant on the coasts and beaches, and a new source of nutrients and water has been delivered to a large portion of this island.

 

Greetings from the Siberian tundra,
Wiebke, Ben and Tom