CRYOGENETIC CATEGORIZATION OF PEAT AND MINERALCORED PALSAS IN THE SCHEFFERVILLE AREA, QUEBEC.
This paper presents results of an investigation on palsas in the Schefferville area of Quebec and focuses on surface and subsurface characteristics. Eighteen palsa sites were identified and four palsas were investigated in detail. They ranged from 12 to 59 m in length and up to 1.1 m in height. Comb...
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| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
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| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.563.117 http://pubs.aina.ucalgary.ca/cpc/CPC5-95.pdf |
| Summary: | This paper presents results of an investigation on palsas in the Schefferville area of Quebec and focuses on surface and subsurface characteristics. Eighteen palsa sites were identified and four palsas were investigated in detail. They ranged from 12 to 59 m in length and up to 1.1 m in height. Combinations of bare peat. xerophilic shrubs and lichens on the palsa surfaces indicate palsas in a stable stage of development. Where block failure and thermokarst hollows are present palsas are in a degradation stage of development. Peat thickness on and surrounding the palsa was not uniform at each site. It is suggested here that this results from deflation by winter and summer winds. The percent of surface vegetation cover was a major controlling factor in this process. Amounts and location of subsurface ice, peat and mineral soil varied greatly. Ground ice ranged from small discontinuous ice lenses within the peat and mineral soil to thick ice lenses at the peatlmineral soil interface and entirely confined within the mineral soil. This study demonstrates that palsas exist in the Schefferville area at different stages of development with distinctly dierent internal structure in a relatively close association. Resume Cette communication prBsente les rkultats de travaux qui ont kt6 effectub sur des palses dam la rBgion de |
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