June 27, 2007 Pingo

Jack’s weather report:

It is 12:05 a.m. and the sun is shining bright out over the Arctic Ocean but relatively low in the sky. 

Temp: 32 °F (0 °C)

Winds are out of the east at 14 kt (16 mph)

This evening I was invited to go out and see a pingo.  The name intrigued me as did its meaning.  A pingo is a mound of earth covered ice that forms as water is squeezed out of the tundra.  Pingos can be very large.  One source I read said as high as 70 meters and 2 kilometers in diameter.  The ones we saw were much smaller in comparison.  They were located in what was once a lake bed.

We are standing on the pingo. 

A closer look at the crack in the earth caused by the pingo. 

On the walk out to the pingo, Jason spotted a lemming and we stopped for a look.

Jason holding the lemming.  It was catch and release. 

The shore ice is gone!...more soon…still waiting for the polar bear swim.