High latitude areas have been identified in most GCMs as regions where global warming will appear earliest and be the greatest. Since much of Canada's north is underlain by permafrost, a warming of 3-5°C could cause widespread erosion and thermokarst. The Arctic coastal zone is particularly vulnerable, as it lies at the interface between terrestrial systems dominated by permafrost, and marine systems dominated by sea ice and wave action. This study aims at understanding some mechanisms of arctic coastal erosion, such as thermoerosional niches and block failure. The final goal of this research is to identify the areas of Herschel Island, Yukon Territory, which are likely to experience the greatest magnitude of change in the near future. This information is then coupled with a climate change scenario in order to predict future coastal erosion in the area.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.81448 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Turner, Jennifer, 1979- |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Geography.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 002179834, proquestno: AAIMR06464, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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