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<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2025-6564</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>The history of ground ice formation and intra-permafrost fluid flow as documented by Ra and Th isotopes</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Rotem</surname>
<given-names>Dotan</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Weinstein</surname>
<given-names>Yishai</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Harlavan</surname>
<given-names>Yehudit</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff3">
<sup>3</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Torfstein</surname>
<given-names>Adi</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff4">
<sup>4</sup>
</xref>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff5">
<sup>5</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
<contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Christiansen</surname>
<given-names>Hanne Hvidtfeldt</given-names>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff2">
<sup>2</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Department of Environment, Planning and Sustainability, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat-Gan, 529002, Israel</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff2">
<label>2</label>
<addr-line>Arctic Geophysics Department, the University Centre in Svalbard, UNIS, Longyearbyen 9170, Norway</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff3">
<label>3</label>
<addr-line>Geological Survey of Israel, 32 Yesha&apos;yahu Leibowitz, Jerusalem 9692100, Israel</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff4">
<label>4</label>
<addr-line>Institute of Earth Sciences, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel</addr-line>
</aff>
<aff id="aff5">
<label>5</label>
<addr-line>The Interuniversity Institute for Marine Sciences, Eilat, Israel</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>25</day>
<month>03</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>32</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Dotan Rotem et al.</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-6564/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-6564/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-6564/egusphere-2025-6564.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2025-6564/egusphere-2025-6564.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>While permafrost is considered a permanently frozen soil, it often demonstrates evidence for internal processes, including fluid migration. Here, we present data of the chemical composition, Ra, Th, and Ac isotopes of saline permafrost from three closely-retrieved cores drilled at Adventdalen, a fjord Valley in central Svalbard, which provides evidence for a fingering style intra-permafrost fluid flow. Ground ice of the different cores differs markedly in their salinity and composition. In one core, which has a composition similar to seawater, the long to short-lived isotope ratios, (&lt;sup&gt;226&lt;/sup&gt;Ra/&lt;sup&gt;223&lt;/sup&gt;Ra)&lt;sub&gt;AR&lt;/sub&gt; and (&lt;sup&gt;226&lt;/sup&gt;Ra/&lt;sup&gt;224&lt;/sup&gt;Ra)&lt;sub&gt;AR&lt;/sub&gt;, are relatively low, being similar to parent isotope activity ratios (&lt;sup&gt;230&lt;/sup&gt;Th/&lt;sup&gt;227&lt;/sup&gt;Ac and &lt;sup&gt;230&lt;/sup&gt;Th/&lt;sup&gt;228&lt;/sup&gt;Th, respectively) on grain surfaces (CEC fraction). Ground ice of the two other cores, which are less saline and have Na/Cl and SO&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;/Cl ratios higher than seawater, demonstrates much higher Ra isotope ratios, closer to parent ratios in the bulk sediment. It is suggested that the different isotope ratios are due to different residence times, and that the parameter controlling the isotope ratios is radium diffusion from inside the grains. While ground ice in the less saline cores was formed during permafrost formation (10&amp;ndash;9 ka), ground ice average residence time in the more saline core is shorter, &amp;lt;&amp;lt;2,000 years, which did not allow a significant diffusion of the long-lived &lt;sup&gt;226&lt;/sup&gt;Ra from inside the grains. The latter is probably the result of a Late Holocene intrusion of saline fluids, arriving from a low-Th or high water:rock ratio basement rock. This highlights the internal dynamics of saline permafrost, which may affect its resilience to the ongoing global warming.</p>
</abstract>
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<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Israel Science Foundation</funding-source>
<award-id>ISF163/19</award-id>
</award-group>
<award-group id="gs2">
<funding-source>Norges Forskningsråd</funding-source>
<award-id>269988 RiS ID: 10664</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
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