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Alaska permafrost characterization: Geophysical and related field data collected in 2021

Metadata Updated: September 16, 2025

Geophysical measurements were collected by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at five sites in Interior Alaska in September 2021 for the purposes of imaging permafrost structure and quantifying variations in subsurface moisture content in relation to thaw features. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) measurements were made along transects 110-222 meters (m) in length to quantify subsurface permafrost characteristics. ERT transects were collected across a fireline boundary within the Bonanza Creek Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) site where repeat measurements have been made since 2014; across and adjacent to two thermokarst lakes, Vault Lake and Goldstream Lake; and along two profiles at the North Star golf course in Fairbanks, Alaska. Models of electrical resistivity produced from these data revealed the distribution of frozen and thawed soil to depths of 10-40 m below the surface. Borehole nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) data were collected at two sites in order to determine liquid water content at depth in shallow boreholes. NMR data were collected in a 2.25 m-deep borehole at the North Star golf course adjacent to one of the ERT profiles, and in another two 1.625 m-deep boreholes adjacent to Big Trail Lake where previous NMR measurements were made in 2019 and 2020. Manual permafrost-probe measurements of thaw depths were collected at set intervals along each ERT transect and adjacent to NMR measurement locations used for comparison to the geophysical measurements, except at the North Star golf course where shallow permafrost was absent.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 16, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date September 16, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-62fbe26ed34eb7e309ca28c3
Data Last Modified 2022-10-12T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id d7c1c107-8024-4af6-ba0f-80062437a7b1
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -148.297120, 65.030609, -147.635486, 64.711801
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 9ed45063bff0db6bb909a4b0c4ebb66eff951917968c35ba68b61430df953318
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -148.297120, 65.030609, -148.297120, 64.711801, -147.635486, 64.711801, -147.635486, 65.030609, -148.297120, 65.030609}

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