permafrost

Permafrost zones

Permafrost is widespread in the northern part of the Northern Hemisphere, where it occurs in 85 percent of Alaska and 55 percent of Russia and Canada, and covers probably all of Antarctica. Permafrost is more widespread and extends to greater depths in the north than in the south. It is 1,500 metres (5,000 feet) thick in northern Siberia and 740 metres (about 2,430 feet) thick in northern Alaska, and it thins progressively toward the south.

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Most permafrost can be differentiated into two broad zones; the continuous and the discontinuous, referring to the lateral continuity of permafrost. In the continuous zone of the far north, permafrost is nearly everywhere present except under the lakes and rivers that do not freeze to the bottom. The discontinuous zone includes numerous permafrost-free areas that increase progressively in size and number from north to south. Near the southern boundary, only rare patches of permafrost have been found to exist.

In addition to its widespread occurrence in the Arctic and subarctic areas of Earth, permafrost also exists at lower latitudes in areas of high elevation. This type of perennially frozen ground is called alpine permafrost. Although data from high plateaus and mountains are scarce, measurements taken below the active surface layer indicate zones where temperatures of 0 °C or colder persist for two or more years. The largest area of alpine permafrost is in western China, where 1,500,000 square km (580,000 square miles) of permafrost are known to exist. In the contiguous United States, alpine permafrost is limited to about 100,000 square km (about 38,600 square miles) in the high mountains of the west. Permafrost occurs at elevations as low as 2,500 metres (8,200 feet) in the northern states and at about 3,500 metres (about 11,500 feet) in Arizona.

A unique occurrence of permafrost—one that has no analogue on land—lies under the Arctic Ocean, on the northern continental shelves of North America and Eurasia. This is known as subsea or offshore permafrost.

Study of permafrost

Although the existence of permafrost had been known to the inhabitants of Siberia for centuries, scientists of the Western world did not take seriously the isolated reports of a great thickness of frozen ground existing under northern forest and grasslands until 1836. Then, Alexander Theodor von Middendorff measured temperatures to depths of approximately 100 metres (328 feet) of permafrost in the Shargin shaft, an unsuccessful well dug for the governor of the Russian-Alaskan Trading Company, at Yakutsk, and estimated that the permafrost was 215 metres (705 feet) thick. Since the late 19th century, Russian scientists and engineers have actively studied permafrost and applied the results of their learning to the development of Russia’s north.

In a similar way, prospectors and explorers were aware of permafrost in the northern regions of North America for many years, but it was not until after World War II that systematic studies of perennially frozen ground were undertaken by scientists and engineers in the United States and Canada. Since exploitation of the great petroleum resources on the northern continental shelves began in earnest in the 1970s, investigations into subsea permafrost have progressed even more rapidly than have studies of permafrost on land.

Alpine permafrost studies had their beginning in the study of rock glaciers in the Alps of Switzerland. Although ice was known to exist in rock glaciers, it was not until after World War II that investigation by geophysical methods clearly demonstrated slow movement of perennial ice—i.e., permafrost. In the 1970s and ’80s, detailed geophysical work and temperature and borehole examination of mountain permafrost began in Russia, China, and Scandinavia, especially with regard to construction in high mountain and plateau areas.

Air temperature and ground temperature

In areas where the mean annual air temperature becomes colder than 0 °C (32 °F), some of the ground frozen in the winter will not be completely thawed in the summer, and, therefore, a layer of permafrost will form and continue to grow downward gradually each year from the seasonally frozen ground. The permafrost layer will become thicker each winter, its thickness controlled by the thermal balance between the heat flow from Earth’s interior and that flowing outward into the atmosphere. This balance depends on the mean annual air temperature and the geothermal gradient. The average geothermal gradient is an increase of 1 °C (1.8 °F) for every 30 to 60 metres (roughly 100 to 200 feet) of depth. Eventually the thickening permafrost layer reaches an equilibrium depth at which the amount of geothermal heat reaching the permafrost is on the average equal to that lost to the atmosphere. Thousands of years are required to attain a state of equilibrium where permafrost is hundreds of feet thick.

The annual fluctuation of air temperature from winter to summer is reflected in a subdued manner in the upper few metres of the ground. This fluctuation diminishes rapidly with depth, being only a few degrees at 7.5 metres (about 25 feet), and is barely detectable at 15 metres (49 feet). The level of zero amplitude, at which fluctuations are hardly detectable, is 9 to 15 metres (30 to 49 feet). If the permafrost is in thermal equilibrium, the temperature at the level of zero amplitude is generally regarded as the minimum temperature of the permafrost. Below this depth the temperature increases steadily under the influence of heat from Earth’s interior. The temperature of permafrost at the depth of minimum annual seasonal change varies from near 0 °C at the southern limit of permafrost to −10 °C (14 °F) in northern Alaska and −13 °C (9 °F) in northeastern Siberia.

As the climate becomes colder or warmer, but maintaining a mean annual temperature colder than 0 °C, the temperature of the permafrost correspondingly rises or declines, resulting in changes in the position of the base of permafrost. The position of the top of permafrost will be lowered by thawing when the climate warms to a mean annual air temperature warmer than 0 °C. The rate at which the base or top of permafrost is changed depends not only on the amount of climatic fluctuation but also on the amount of ice in the ground and the composition of the ground, conditions that in part control the geothermal gradient. If the geothermal gradient is known and if the surface temperature remains stable for a long period of time, it is, therefore, possible to predict from a knowledge of the mean annual air temperature the thickness of permafrost in a particular area that is remote from bodies of water.