The Formation of Massive Ice in Permafrost

• Main Authors: A. C. Fowler, C. G. Noon
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: FROST HEAVE; Ice; Ice Sheet; permafrost
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.52.295; http://www.maths.ox.ac.uk/users/fowler/research/papers/massive.ps

: The application of Miller's secondary frost heave model to the formation of massive segregated ice in permafrost requires the specification of the groundwater effective pressure below the frozen soil. This is derived through a regional groundwater flow model which also allows for compaction of the sediments in the presence of an over-riding ice sheet, for example. The simplification of Miller's model due to Fowler and Krantz (SIAM J. Appl. Math. 54, p. 1650 (1994)) is then applied in a simple step-freezing simulation. The results predict that ice lenses which form are very thin, but the final ice lens can continue to grow as the frost line penetrates, resulting in the formation of massive ice segregation. 1 MASSIVE SEGREGATION ICE In permafrost regions, large ice formations, often several metres thick, are observed to form within the permafrost. The formations are called massive ice and at least some of it is thought to have been formed as a result of frost heave processes, perhaps o.