Prehistoric Pingos
(images via: Trojan_Llama and Geograph/Katy Walters)
The specific set of conditions required for pingo formation allow researchers to discern where currently temperate regions were once much colder. One example is Breckland in the eastern UK, where visitors can observe the remains of collapsed pingos by hiking the The Great Eastern Pingo Trail.
(images via: Between My Ears : photos by Kai Petainen)
A possible fossil pingo can be found in Jackass Pass, Wyoming. Dubbed “Kai’s Pingo” by its semi-official discover and photographer, Kai Petainen, this smallish mound of compacted dirt, soil, pebbles and rock slabs may have been preserved due to its location high up in the Rockies in a sheltered valley. Since it’s a well-known fact the western United States was once much, much colder tens and hundreds of thousands of years ago, finding the remains of at least one formerly frozen pingo is pretty much a given as well.
(image via: Geoturystyka)
There are roughly 1,350 pingos in Canada’s Mackenzie Delta and the Pingo National Landmark protects only eight of these features. As global warming makes this frigid area more habitable, the fate of many of the unprotected pingos is an open question: will the Pingo National Landmark be expanded, or will the pingos be mined for the gravel and fresh water the contain in abundance?

