Weakly developed, buried soil profile on a stable mudboil

Location: Kaminak Lake Area, Kivalliq, Nunavut, Canada

Unlike the mudboil excavated in image 0220, this stable mudboil has a weakly developed soil profile with a thin humus layer over an oxidized B-horizon. The tape is graduated in cm and inches. The total profile thickness is less than 5 cm, and part of the profile is buried in mud, presumably extruded during a phase of mudboil activity following the long period of stability that was necessary to form the soil profile. I do not know precisely where this site is located, but it is below the level of maximum submergence of this landscape in the Tyrrell Sea and could have first been exposed from 4,000 to 6,000 years ago, based on regional radiocarbon ages (Arsenault, et. al., 1981). See detailed discussion for image 0240.

Updated 05/06/2010 AW