Svalbard Permafrost Landforms as Analogues for Mars (SPLAM): Scientific Outcomes and Outlook

Kurzfassung

Fieldwork on terrestrial analogues is essential for understanding planetary landforms and their evolution, as the Earth is still our “reference” to understand geologic processes. The knowledge gained from fieldwork helps to establish multiple working hypotheses and test them.

The Arctic archipelago of Svalbard constitutes a unique terrestrial analogue environment for comparison to latitude-dependent cold climate landforms on Mars. Svalbard contains abundant and diverse (peri)glacial features in close proximity, allowing for an integrated landscape analysis approach.

The main questions driving our fieldwork on Svalbard are: • Does the formation of cold-climate landforms on Mars require freeze-thaw processes and the presence of snow/ice & liquid water? • What are the rates of cold-climate processes on Mars? • How do analogous landforms on Mars respond to changing climates, which on Earth has some of its most dramatic consequences in the Arctic? What controls the recent environmental evolution of Mars?

Since 2008, we have been conducting Earth-analogue studies for Mars on Svalbard, including qualitative and quantitative studies of individual landforms, mapping efforts, and short- and long-term monitoring activities. We acquired high-resolution (cm-scale) aerial datasets of selected key regions on Svalbard in the years 2008, 2020, and 2024. Derived data sets include visual, near-infrared and thermal image mosaics as well as high-resolution DEMs. Their interpretations have been complemented by ground truth observations to characterize near-surface materials and conditions, and to produce detailed geomorphological maps. Fieldwork involves the acquisition of pole and kite imagery for structure-from-motion analysis, and measuring several weather and soil parameters during the active thawing season. Moreover, using the KNaCK ultra-high resolution mobile LiDAR scanning system, we are able to measure local topography with very high resolution, with repeatable control for change detection. All data are geodetically controlled, with dGPS precision of <2 cm.

Comparing LiDAR data from 2024 and 2025, we aim to identify cm-scale changes in patterned ground over timescales of days to years. We can compare these data with older data acquired since the 1980’s to extend our monitoring timeline to decades during which environmental conditions have changed significantly and changes in microrelief and clast positions are sufficiently large to be clearly measured. Scarp retreat rates on debris flows over an ice-cored moraine are quantified over both day-to-day and decade-long time-scales with unprecedented accuracy. We also closely cooperate with the Technical University of Munich (TUM) which uses Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT) measurements to characterize permafrost conditions in post-glacially uplifted deposits.