Using Ground-penetrating Radar and Seismic Shothole Drillers’ Logs to Identify Massive Ice and Taliks in the Lower Mackenzie Corridor and the Colville Hills, Northwest Territories ...

• Main Author: Odell, Daniel
• Format: Master Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: Graduate Studies 2014
• Subjects: Geophysics; FOS Earth and related environmental sciences; Physical Geography; Permafrost; Ground ice; Taliks; Arctic; Ice; Little Chicago; Mackenzie Valley; Northwest Territories; permafrost
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.11575/prism/28616; https://prism.ucalgary.ca/handle/11023/1275

Understanding of the distribution of massive ice and near surface taliks on a regional scale can offer important insights into the geomorphology, hydrology and quaternary geology in regions underlain by permafrost. These features are poorly constrained within the lower Mackenzie Valley and in the Colville Hills, two areas with the potential for hydrocarbon extraction. This thesis used ground-penetrating radar to identify massive ice and taliks at two sites in the lower Arctic of the Northwest Territories. Lithostratigraphic data taken from shothole drillers’ logs at Little Chicago, in the lower Mackenzie Corridor, and Lac des Bois, in the Colville Hills, act as a complement to shallow geophysical surveying undertaken in March of 2009. Three occurrences of massive ice and one talik were identified at the two study sites. The combined effectiveness, and the limitations, of ground-penetrating and seismic shothole drillers’ logs were examined in this study. ...