The Oxygen Isotope Composition of Ice Wedges of Ayon Island and Paleotemperature Reconstructions of the Late Pleistocene and Holocene of the Northern Chukotka

Abstract

Syngenetic ice wedges have been investigated on Ayon Island. Their isotope composition and the geochemical characteristics of both ice wedges and enclosing sediments have been obtained; four ice-wedge stages have been distinguished. Paleo temperature reconstructions for Ayon Island and adjacent territories of northern Chukotka have been obtained based of these results. Almost identical trends in the distribution of ice-wedge isotope characteristics in the Arctic islands and in the lower reaches of the Kolyma River were observed, as well as differences in the magnitude of isotope oscillations during the transition from the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene compared to ice wedges of the Lower Kolyma region.