CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Harris, S.A.
Date : 1982.
Title : Identification of permafrost zones using selected permafrost landforms
Publication : The Roger J.E. Brown memorial volume : proceedings of the Fourth Canadian Permafrost Conference, Calgary, Alberta, March 2-6, 1981 / Edited by H.M. French. NRCC - National Research Council of Canada
Issue : 20214.
Page(s) : 49-58.
Abstract
This paper examines the possibility of using the distribution of zonal permafrost landforms to aid in mapping permafrost distributions. In areas with under 50 cm snow cover in winter, permafrost zones can be defined by freezing and thawing indices. The relationship works for Norway, Spitzbergen, Canada, and Mongolia. Since these include a wide range of thermal environments, it is possible to trace the thermal ranges of various periglacial landforms. The zone of continuous permafrost markedly transgresses mean annual air temperature isotherms and is delimited by areas of Holocene felsenmeer and ice-wedge polygons in mineral soils. Active ice wedges in peats, earth hummocks, and cemetery mounds, non-sorted polygons, and open system pingos extend into the zone of discontinuous permafrost. Sorted polygons and closed system pingos extend even further. Palsas, peat plateaux, and ice caves extend from the zone of continuous permafrost into that ofsporadic permafrost in Norway and Quebec.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology