FROST PROBLEMS AND PHOTO INTERPRETATION
When settlers use winter-roads across bogs,
the higher conductivity of cold of the hard-
pressed snow or ice cover on the tracks,
causes an increase in the thickness of the
permafrost there. In summer, when the snow
has melted and the top level of the frost sinks,
it will drop less beneath the road than in the
surrounding terrain. This higher level of the
road will increase in height next year, as well
as the following year, and soon the road will
have to be abandoned (Bergström, Fries and
Lundqvist).
Another serious problem facing the settler
in arctic regions is the distribution and qual-
ity of ground water. In vast areas of perma-
frost zones the ground water is shallow and of
poor quality on permanently frozen ground.
In the greater part of eastern Siberia, as ex-
ample, ground water cannot even properly
develop, because of the permafrost (Zabor-
ski).
In Sweden systematic research and labora-
tory experiments as regards soil freezing and
frost-heaving was started in 1925 when “The
Swedish State Road Institute" and ''Geolog-
ical Survey of Sweden" in co-operation in-
cluded these questions in their program work.
Beskow (1935) presented an important paper
dealing with ‘‘Mechanics of Soil Freezing,”
“The Frost-heaving Process,” ‘‘Hydrody-
namic Postulates of Frost-heaving’’ and
“Temperature Conditions in Freezing
Ground.”
Further, the Royal Swedish Institute of
Technology, Stockholm, has a complete Ice
laboratory with equipment for freezing ex-
periments at — 22° Fahr. (—30°C.) of soil and
water masses, e.g. ground frost experiments,
damming experiments with ice flows, etc.
In the Soviet Union, where vast areas are
Fic. 4. A close-up photo of a sorted circle (debris
island), about 4 feet across, in the same terrain as
shown in Fig. 3, taken by the author July 30,
1957.
12
dad
.. Fic. 5. Close-up view of a non-sorted circle, 4 to 5
feet across, in stony terrain not far from the West
Ice, North East Land, at abt. 920 feet (280 m.)
E sea level. (Photo by the author July 30,
undermined by permafrost, all government
organizations, municipalities, and co-opera-
tive societies are required to make a thorough
survey of the permafrost conditions according
to a prescribed plan, before any structure may
be erected in the permafrost region.
PHOTO INTERPRETATION OF
PATTERNED GROUND
Thus, a true knowledge of the problems
concerning frozen ground and the occurrence
of permafrost in different areas is of great im-
Bay,
Fic. 6. Sorted polygons at Murchison
North East Land, 26 feet (abt. 8 m.) above sea
level. Depth of active layer abt. 24 in. (60 cm.) and
thickness of permafrost not far from 1,000 feet
a m.). (Photo by the author July 28,
957.
