Changing Pingo (Palsa) Conditions

Mika Aromäki writes:

We travelled to Lauluvuoma area by lake Poyrisjarvi to check the condition of the well-known palsas there. The shoreline from Poyrisjarvi autiotupa had disappeared underwater so we had to use a boat to reach the palsas. The palsas had a lot water surrounding them and we had to carefully select our paths not to get wet feet. To our eyes the palsas looked like they were rapidly disappearing. Lots of ponds around them. The peat cover had split and fallen to the side in large blocks. We felt a great uncertainty of the future of this palsa site. Will we be able to see them again if we came back in two years of time?

Vladimir Romanovski with the University of Alaska Fairbanks Permafrost Laboratory writes:

Palsas and pingos are very different features. It is pretty common for palsas to appear and disappear on multi-year time scale. If the water will not drain in described case, these palsas will disappear in several years time frame.