Investigations of polygonal patterned ground in continuous Antarctic permafrost by means of ground penetrating radar and electrical resistivity tomography: Some unexpected correlations

The results of a combined geophysical and geomorphological investigation of thermal-contraction-crack polygons near Gondwana station (Germany) in northern Victoria Land (Antarctica) are reported. An area of about 20,000 m2 characterized by random orthogonal polygons was investigated using integrated ground penetrating radar, electrical resistivity tomography, geomorphological surveys, and two trench excavations. The polygons are well developed only at elevations higher than 6–7 m above current sea level on Holocene-age raised beaches. It is concluded that the polygons are composite in nature because the shallow linear depressions that outline the polygons are underlain by fissures that can contain both sandy gravel and foliated ice (i.e., ice wedges) even in the same polygon network and at distances of just a few meters. Unexpectedly, most of the polygons follow the border of the raised beaches and develop in correspondence with stratigraphic layers dipping toward the sea, imaged by ground penetrating radar (GPR) profiles and interpreted as prograding layers toward the present-day shoreline.