Autumn colors of shrub vegetation separating solifluction stripes

Location: Kaminak Lake Area, Kivalliq, Nunavut, Canada

This is an image taken from an altitude of about 1,000 m. It depicts a mudboil-covered till plain with prominent solifluction patterns and a frost-polygon-ornamented alluvial depression (see also 0053, 0066, 0072, and 0093). The red areas are caused by the autumn colors of leaves of dwarf birch/willow or Dryas integrifolia which grow preferentially in low, moist areas that outline the slightly raised surfaces of the solifluction stripes or lobes. The light yellow-green colors of alluvial flats reflect a grass/sedge vegetation cover. See detailed discussion for imag 0240.

Updated 05/07/2010 AW