ABSTRACT

Arctic beaches show characteristic microrelief features that readily distinguish them from beaches in more temperate zones. The beach at Nome, Alaska, contained many of these microtopographic structures during the summer of 1967, and due to unusual spring and summer weather conditions, these features persisted throughout the summer. On prograding sections of the coast, similar features might be permanently preserved in the stratigraphic cross section of the beach

Microrelief features develop in the spring and early summer as a result of dynamic processes associated with the breakup of sea ice and thawing of the kaimoo, permafrost, snowbanks, and blocks of ice stranded on the beach. The resulting microrelief forms in two zonal areas on the beach and is defined by the originating mechanisms of the microrelief features. The lower zone is restricted to the swash zone, where interaction of wave deposition and melting of stranded gravel- and sand rich brash ice and kaimoo ice produces ice-push ridges of kaimoo ridge, sea-ice kettles and sea-ice sand and gravel cones. The upper zone is restricted to the upper foreshore and backshore, where fluvial processes form microfluvial features consisting of micro-outwash deposits and microdeltaic deposits.