Permafrost geosystem assessment at the Beaver Creek Road experimental site (Alaska Highway, Yukon, Canada)

• Main Author: Stephani, Eva
• Other Authors: Shur, Yuri, Fortier, Daniel, Kanevskiy, Mikhail, Connor, Billy
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: Roads; Yukon; Design and construction; Cold weather conditions; Alaska Highway; Embankments; Permafrost; Frozen ground; Research; Civil engineering; Canada; Fairbanks; Beaver Creek; Ice; permafrost; wedge*; Alaska
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11122/8279

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2013 An experimental site testing a range of engineering techniques for mitigating permafrost degradation along the Alaska Highway has been established in 2008 at Beaver Creek (Yukon, Canada). Based on the hypothesis that permafrost has a distinctive sensitivity to climate and terrain conditions at a local scale, a geosystem approach, which considers a set of components (e.g. permafrost, embankment, vegetation, hydrology and hydrogeology) and accounts for dynamics within a system, was applied to obtain a better understanding of local permafrost conditions and changes within the system. Therefore, this assessment, for ultimately measuring performance of the mitigation techniques, integrated the permafrost conditions, in terms of cryostratigraphic units and soil properties, with local climate, natural terrain and embankment conditions. The author, who participated in the site establishment, its baseline investigations and monitoring programs, presents here the baseline geosystem studies at the Beaver Creek Road Experimental Site with an emphasis on permafrost. Chapter 1. Introduction -- Chapter 2. Study area background -- 2.1. The Alaska Highway -- 2.2. Geology -- 2.3. Climate, drainage, and vegetation -- 2.4. Permafrost -- 3. Permafrost cryostratigraphy and material properties -- 3.1. Introduction -- 3.2. Methodology -- 3.2.1. Ground ice and soil description -- 3.2.2. Permafrost geotechnical properties -- 3.2.3. Thermal regime -- 3.3. Results -- 3.3.1. Permafrost cryostratigraphy -- 3.3.1. Unit 1 (0 to ~0.5-1.0 m deep) --3.3.1.2. Unit 2 (~0.5-1.0 to ~6.5.-9.0 m deep) -- 3.3.1.3. Unit 3 (~6.5.-9.0 to ~11.0-15.0 m deep) -- 3.3.1.4 Unit 4 (~11.0-15.0 m to>̲ 16 m deep) -- 3.3.1.5. network of buried ice-wedges (2.5 m to>̲ 10.7 m deep) -- 3.3.2. Permafrost geotechnical properties -- 3.3.2.1 Unit 1 (0 to ~0.5-1.0 m deep) -- 3.3.2.2. Unit 2 (~0.5-1.0 to ~6.5-9.0 m deep) -- 3.3.2.2.1 Sub-unit 2A (~0.5-1.0 to 2.0 m deep) -- 3.3.2.2.2 Sub-unit 2B (~2.0 to 4.0 m deep) ...