Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Permafrost

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers

Part of the book series: Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series ((EESS))

Synonyms

Perennially cryotic ground

Definition

Permafrost. Ground (soil or rock and included ice and organic material) that remains at or below 0°C for at least 2 consecutive years.

Perennially cryotic ground. Soil or rock at or below 0°C for at least 2 consecutive years, but the material may not be frozen because of freezing-point depression.

Active layer. The layer of ground that is subject to annual thawing and freezing in areas underlain by permafrost.

Ice-rich permafrost. Thaw-sensitive permafrost containing excess ice.

Ground ice. Pore, segregated and/or massive ice that occurs in frozen ground.

Permafrost aggradation. A naturally or artificially caused increase in the thickness and/or areal extent of permafrost.

Permafrost definition

The term “permafrost” was introduced into the English literature by Muller (1947) as an abbreviation of the original Russian term “Permanently frozen ground (soil)” (Sumgin et al., 1940). North American and Russian concepts, however, have differed...

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 499.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Bibliography

  • Baranov, I. Y., 1959. Geographical distribution of seasonally frozen ground and permafrost. In Shvetsov, P. F., and Dostovalov, B. A. (eds.), General Geocryology (Permafrost Studies). Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences, pp. 193–218 (in Russian).

    Google Scholar 

  • Brown, J., Ferrians, O. J., Heginbottom, J. A., and Melnikov, E. S., 1997. Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground-Ice Conditions. Reston: U.S. Geological Survey.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baulin, V. V., and Murzaeva, V. E. (eds.), 2003. Dictionary of Geocryology. Moscow: Geos, p. 140.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ferrians, O. J., 1965. Permafrost Map of Alaska. U.S. Geological Survey Misc. Inv. Series Map I-455, scale 1:2,500,000.

    Google Scholar 

  • French, H. M., 2007. The Periglacial Environment, 3rd edn. Chichester: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • French, H., and Shur, Y., 2010. The principles of cryostratigraphy. Earth-Science Reviews, 101, 190–206.

    Google Scholar 

  • GOST 25100-95, 1995. Classification of Soils. International Standard. Moscow (in Russian).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jorgenson, M. T., and Osterkamp, T. E., 2005. Response of boreal ecosystems to varying modes of permafrost degradation. Canadian Journal of Forest Research, 35, 2100–2111.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanevskiy, M., 2003. Cryogenic structure of mountain slope deposits, northeastern Russia. In Proceedings of the Eights International Conference on Permafrost, July 21–25, 2003, Zurich, Switzerland. Vol. 1, pp. 513–518.

    Google Scholar 

  • Long, E. L., 1963. The Long thermopile. In Proceedings Permafrost International Conference, November 11–15, 1963, Lafayette, pp. 487–491.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mackay, J. R., 1972. The world of underground ice. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 62, 1–22.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moskalenko, N., Slavin-Borovsky, V. B., and Shur, Y. L., 1978. Detailed study of terrain units in northwestern Siberia. In Malevskiy, S. P., and Shur, Y. L. (eds.), Processes of Natural Heat Exchange in Permafrost Environment, Transactions of Main Geophysical Observatory. Leningrad: Hydrometeoizdat, Vol. 402, pp. 94–105 (in Russian).

    Google Scholar 

  • Muller, S. W., 1947. Permafrost or Permanently Frozen Ground and Related Engineering Problems. Ann Arbor: J.W. Edwards.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ponomareva, O., and Shur, Y., 2008. Long-term monitoring of frost heave and thaw settlement in the northern taiga of West Siberia. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, June 29–July 3, 2008, Fairbanks. Vol. 2, pp. 1439–1444.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seppälä, M., 1986. The origin of palsas. Geografiska Annaler. Series A, Physical Geography, 68(3), 141–147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Seppälä, M., 1990. Depth of snow and frost on a palsa mire, Finnish Lapland. Geografiska Annaler. Series A, Physical Geography, 72(2), 191–201.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shur, Y. L., 1988. Upper Horizon of the Permafrost Soils and Thermokarst. Novosibirsk: Nauka, Siberian Branch (in Russian).

    Google Scholar 

  • Shur, Y., and Jorgenson, M. T., 2007. Patterns of permafrost formation and degradation in relation to climate and ecosystems. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 18, 7–19.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shur, Y., Jorgenson, T., Kanevskiy, M., and Ping, C.-L., 2008. Formation of frost boils and earth hummocks. In Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Permafrost, extended abstracts, June 29–July 3, 2008, Fairbanks, pp. 287–288.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shur, Y., Hinkel, K. M., and Nelson, F. E., 2005. The Transient layer: implications for geocryology and climate-change science. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes, 16, 5–18.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sumgin, M. I., Kachurin, S. P., Tolstikhin, N. I., and Tumel, V. F., 1940. General Permafrost Science. Moscow: USSR Academy of Sciences (in Russian).

    Google Scholar 

  • Sumgin, M. I., 1927. Permafrost in the USSR Boundary. Vladivostok: Far-East Geophysical Observatory (in Russian).

    Google Scholar 

  • van Everdingen, R. O. (ed.), 1998. Multi-Language Glossary of Permafrost and Related Ground-ice Terms. International Permafrost Association. The Arctic Institute of North America, University of Calgary, Calgary, 268 pp.

    Google Scholar 

  • Washburn, A. L., 1980. Geocryology. New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Alaska Fairbanks, 245 Duckering Building, P.O. Box 755900, Fairbanks, AK, 99775-59000, USA

    Yuri Shur & M. Z. Kanevskiy

  2. Alaska Ecoscience, Fairbanks, AK, USA

    M. Torre Jorgenson

Authors
  1. Yuri Shur
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. M. Torre Jorgenson
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. M. Z. Kanevskiy
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuri Shur .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, USA

    Vijay P. Singh

  2. New Delhi, India

    Pratap Singh

  3. University of Dayton, Dayton, Ohio, USA

    Umesh K. Haritashya

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2011 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

About this entry

Cite this entry

Shur, Y., Jorgenson, M.T., Kanevskiy, M.Z. (2011). Permafrost. In: Singh, V.P., Singh, P., Haritashya, U.K. (eds) Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-2642-2_400

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation