The News Bulletin of the International Permafrost Association Number 23, December 1999

FROZENGROUND

Frozen Ground

International Permafrost AssociationThe International Permafrost Association, founded in 1983, has as its objectives fostering the dissemination of knowledgeconcerning permafrost and promoting cooperation among persons and national or international organizations engagedin scientific investigation and engineering work on permafrost. Membership is through adhering national or multinationalorganizations or as individuals in countries where no Adhering Body exists. The IPA is governed by its officers and aCouncil consisting of representatives from 23 Adhering Bodies having interests in some aspect of theoretical, basic andapplied frozen ground research, including permafrost, seasonal frost, artificial freezing and periglacial phenomena.Committees, Working Groups, and Task Forces organize and coordinate research activities and special projects.

The IPA became an Affiliated Organization of the International Union of Geological Sciences in July 1989. TheAssociation’s primary responsibilities are convening International Permafrost Conferences and accomplishing specialprojects such as preparing maps, bibliographies, and glossaries. The first Conference was held in West Lafayette, Indiana,USA, 1963; the second in Yakutsk, Siberia, 1973; the third in Edmonton, Canada, 1978; the fourth in Fairbanks, Alaska,1983; the fifth in Trondheim, Norway, 1988; the sixth in Beijing, China, 1993; and the seventh in Yellowknife, Canada,1998. Plans are being made to hold the eighth in Switzerland in 2003. Field excursions are an integral part of eachConference, and are organized by the host country.

Cover: Blockstream in basalt near Sani Pass, Lesotho highlands 2900 m a.s.l. in Southern Africa. This 1.2 km long blockstream isthe largest found to date in the highlands. It was visited during the 1999 INQUA post-conference excursion organized by the SouthernAfrican Permafrost Group (see page 8). A study on its palaeoenvironmental significance as a periglacial mass wasting feature willappear in the INQUA conference proceedings. Photograph by Jan Boelhouwers, Department of Earth Sciences, University of theWestern Cape, South Africa.

Executive Committee 1998–2003

President

Professor Hugh M. French, Canada

Vice Presidents

Dr. Felix E. Are, RussiaProfessor Wilfried Haeberli, Switzerland

Members

Dr. Jerry Brown, U.S.A.Professor Truls Mølmann, NorwayProfessor Zhu Yuanlin, China

Standing Committee

Data, Information and Communication

Working Groups

Global Change and PermafrostPeriglacial Processes and EnvironmentsPermafrost EngineeringCryosolsCoastal and Offshore PermafrostSouthern Hemisphere Permafrost and PeriglacialEnvironments

Task Forces

Rock Glacier Dynamics and Permafrost CreepMapping and Distribution Modelling of Mountain PermafrostIsotope/Geochemistry of Permafrost

International Secretariat

Dr. Hanne H. Christiansen, Denmark

Council Members

Argentina

Austria

Belgium

Canada

China

Denmark

Finland

France

Germany

Italy

Japan

Kazakstan

Mongolia

Netherlands

Norway

Poland

Russia

Southern Africa

Spain

Sweden

Switzerland

United Kingdom

United States of America

1Frozen Ground

The News Bulletin of theInternational Permafrost Association

Number 23, December 1999

FROZEN GROUND

2Executive Committee Report

3Troy L. Péwé Memorium

3T.L.Péwé Climate Change Permafrost Reserve

4Report of Working Parties

13News from Members

24Other News

26Forthcoming Meetings

27IPA addresses

Frozen Ground, the News Bulletin of the International Per-mafrost Association, is currently published annually.

The IPA is a non-governmental association of nationalorganizations representing 23 countries or groups of coun-tries. The success of the bulletin depends upon the will-ingness of IPA participants to supply information forpublication. News items from any IPA participant or oth-ers are very welcome, as are interesting photographs. Tosubmit news items or photos please contact:

The IPA SecretariatDr. Hanne H. Christiansen,Institute of Geography,University of Copenhagen,Oester Voldgade 10,1350 Koebenhavn K,DENMARK

This issue of Frozen Ground was compiled by Jerry Brown,Hugh M. French and Hanne H. Christiansen. Productionis courtesy of the Institute of Geography, University of Co-penhagen. Copies of Frozen Ground are available from na-tional contacts.

2 Frozen Ground

Since the Yellowknife conference there has been a changein the operational style of the Association, with an en-larged Executive Committee and a change from a Secre-tary General to an International Secretariat. An Interna-tional Advisory Committee has also been appointed,and the financial situation of the Association has been as-sessed in the light of these administrative changes. Thelast 18 months has also seen activities by the WorkingGroups and Task Forces established in Yellowknife.These are reported upon elsewhere in this issue of Fro-zen Ground.

The new IPA Secretariat is now formally located inDenmark and is operated by Dr. Hanne H. Christiansen.The Commission for Scientific Research in Greenlandand the Institute of Geography, University of Copenha-gen, are jointly funding the Secretariat for the first year,and we are hopeful that this support will continue in thefuture. The Secretariat is housed in the Institute of Geog-raphy, University of Copenhagen.

The first meeting of the new Executive Committee tookplace in Copenhagen, Denmark, April 26-27, 1999. It wasagreed that the Secretary should be a member of theStanding Committee for Data, Information and Commu-nication. The Secretary will also be responsible for thecollection of reports and news, and, in association withthe President, will oversee the editing and production ofFrozen Ground. Because of its important role within theAssociation, the Executive Committee wishes to retainthe style and format of previous issues as far as possible.However, budgetary constraints will limit FrozenGround to publication only once a year. In 1999, publica-tion was be partially supported by Danish sources.

The annual income of the Association is approximately$12000.00 (US). Nearly all adhering bodies are payingdues at their respective levels. It is anticipated that ap-proximately 80% of annual revenues will be allocatedeach year. The funding of Working Groups, Task Forcesand the Standing Committee will be for specific pur-poses, including covering communication. Support forthe Secretariat, production of Frozen Ground and travelsupport for young scientists for the 2003 InternationalPermafrost Conference are given high priority. WorkingGroups, Task Forces and the Standing Committees arerequested to seek funding from international or regionalfunding sources in the first instance. In response to re-quests from various working parties, approximately$4000 was allocated in 1999.

Vice-President Wilfried Haeberli reported upon plansfor the 2003 conference; a steering committee has beenformulated with representatives from the Swiss Acad-emy of Sciences, the Federal Institute for Technology(ETH), and the Swiss Coordinating group on Permafrost.An International Advisory Committee has been ap-pointed to liaise with the Swiss Organizing Committeefor the next international conference. Its role will be toprovide a 'corporate memory', to ensure that there is con-tinuity and uniformity to the international permafrost

conferences.Following information supplied by Jerry Brown, the

Executive Committee approved plans for the develop-ment of an International Permafrost Monitoring Net-work Service (IPMNS) as part of the Global TerrestrialNetwork - Permafrost (GTNet-P). The aim is to develop anetwork of reporting sites in conjunction with the GlobalClimate Observatory System (GCOS). It was decided tohold an open Executive Committee meeting in 2001, ei-ther in association with the First European PermafrostConference, in Rome, March 2001, or at the Fifth Interna-tional Association of Geomorphology Conference, inTokyo, August 2001. An IPA-sponsored visit to Mongoliais being considered in context with the IAG meeting, andcollaborative links between China, Mongolia, Kazakstanand Russia are being encouraged. The next formal meet-ing of the IPA Council will take place in 2003 at the VIII-ICOP in Switzerland.

Following the Executive meeting, President Frenchmet briefly with the Dean of the Faculty of Science,Henrik Jeppesen, the Head of the Department of Geogra-phy, Bjarne H. Jakobsen, and the Vice-Chair of the Com-mission for Scientific Research in Greenland, HansAmmendrup, to thank them for their support for the es-tablishment of the IPA Secretariat in Denmark. Membersof the Executive Committee also met with the Danishnational IPA contact, Sven Berthelsen, President of theDanish Society for Arctic Technology.

The Executive Committee records with great sadnessthe passing of several distinguished colleagues duringthe past year. These include G. Hank Johnston (Canada),Anders Rapp (Sweden), Alfred Jahn (Poland) and TroyL. Péwé (USA).

Executive Committee Report

3Frozen Ground

It is with great sadness that we must record the passingof Troy L. Péwé, one of the leading figures behind thefounding of the International Permafrost Association.He was the first Vice President, 1983-1988, and the sec-ond President, 1988-1993.

Troy Péwé died in Tempe, Arizona, October 21, 1999,with his wife Mary-Jean and members of the immediatefamily in close attendance. He was 81 years old. Thosewho knew Troy will remember his determination to livelife to the full, in spite of several health-related problemsover the last 10 years. He was active until the end. As re-cently as September 1999, Troy Péwé traveled toFairbanks, Alaska, to participate in the dedication of thepermafrost reserve, named in his honor, where he con-ducted seminal studies on permafrost and loess overseveral decades.

The author of over 300 scientific reports and numerousmonographs, Troy Péwé had a distinguished scientificcareer, which spanned five decades. He undertook fieldinvestigations in nearly all of the permafrost regions ofthe world. He was a recognized international authorityon permafrost. He was Chair of the U.S. Planning Com-mittees for the Second, Third and Fourth InternationalConferences on Permafrost, the fourth being held inFairbanks, Alaska, in 1983, at which over 1000 personsparticipated. He was recognized with numerous honorsand awards, the most notable being the most recent - the1999 Distinguished Career Award from the QuaternaryGeology and Geomorphology Division of The Geologi-cal Society of America. His vision and leadership in theearly years of the International Permafrost Associationcannot be forgotten.

Hugh French

The Troy L. Péwé Climate ChangePermafrost ReserveOn September 18, 1999, an area of 25.5 acres in the imme-diate vicinity of Fairbanks, Alaska, was formally dedi-cated as the Troy L. Péwé Climate Change PermafrostReserve. The reserve is located on the Parks Highway,approximately 10 minutes drive from the campus of theUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks. A 10-ton marble bouldercarries a plaque with the following dedication:

"At this site, called Gold Hill, the United States Smelt-ing, refining and Mining Company mined 126,000ounces of gold worth 4.4 million dollars from gravel un-der the loess from 1951 to 1957. In 1989, 15.5 acres werepurchased by the University of Alaska through an ap-propriation from the Alaska Legislature, to be set asideas a permanent scientific site. Professor Troy L. Péwé,Head of Geology Department, School of Mines, from1958 to 1965, and Senator Bettye Fahrenkamp were themotivation forces behind this acquisition. Research atthis site since 1947 by Professor Péwé and his associatestraced back the geological and climatic history of the siteto about three million years ago, as laid down in the fro-zen layers of windblown "loess" dust, ash layers fromvolcanic eruptions, and ancient tree trunks and animalremains exposed in 200-foot-high silt cliffs created bygold mining. Several major episodes of global climatewarming are recorded, with times of major permafrostthawing and great erosion of loess, alternating with ma-jor periods of loess deposition and permafrost forma-tion. This makes it one of the richest sites for the study ofpast climates in Alaska. It is now preserved for futuregenerations of researchers."

Troy L. Péwé - Memorium

Troy Péwé and Hugh French pose beside the 10 tonmarble boulder containing the dedication plaque forthe Reserve at Gold Hill, Fairbanks, Alaska.September 18, 1999.

Photograph mid 1980's, Tibet, China.

4 Frozen Ground

The IPA Council at Yellowknife approved the formationor continuation of the one Standing Committee, sixWorking Groups (two of which are new) and three TaskForces; collectively referred to as Working Parties. TaskForces are intended to be short-term activities resultingin assessments or recommendations on specific subjects.The following reports cover the period since the 1998permafrost conference and discuss future plans.

Additional details on the Working Parties guidelinesand international liaison were reported in FrozenGround 22. Results of Working Groups for the period1994-1998 were reported in the abstract volume of theYellowknife conference and periodically on the IPA website. Reports were reviewed and edited by Jerry Brown,Member, IPA Executive Committe (jerrybrown@igc.org).

Standing CommitteeData, Information, and Communications

Objectives are to initiate and implement IPA strategiesfor data, archiving, information product development,and communication within and beyond the permafrostcommunity. Core membership includes J. Branson (UK),M. Burgess (Canada), D. Vonder Mühll (Switzerland),and J. Brown (USA) liaison for Executive Committee andthe Global Terrestrial Network-Permafrost (GTNet-P).Representatives from China, Russia and several Work-ing Groups will be added during 2000.

Committee activities this past year involved represent-ing IPA at international meetings, and maintaining theweb site and Global Geocryological Database (GGD) ac-tivities.

Following distribution of the Circumpolar Active-Layer Permafrost System (CAPS), Version 1.0 CD-ROMby National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) to allattendees of the Yellowknife Conference, an additional200 copies were ordered in January 1999 to respond tocontinued requests for the CD. Several additional GGDdata sets were received and these and other new oneswill be made available electronically from NSIDC. Thecomplete CAPS is now available on the Global TerrestrialObservatory System (GTOS) web site: www.fao.org/gtos. The IPA map is available on line: ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/Snow_Ice/Permafrost/IPA_map/. A shortnote was published in Eos (December 29,1998) describ-ing CAPS and the statistics for the IPA map units. Themap has been prepared as a raster file for use by GCMmodelers and is available from NSIDC.

Since Yellowknife members have attended a numberof meetings. Informal discussions were held during theAmerican Geophysical Union (AGU) Fall 1998 Confer-ence among Barry, Brown, Burgess, F. Nelson and severalothers on the development of the permafrost monitoringnetwork (see Monitoring report).

The activities of the committee were presented at the1998 AGU session honoring Art Lachenbruch; the Asso-

ciation of American Geographers, 95th Annual Meeting,Honolulu, March 1999; the International Conference onMonitoring of the Cryosphere in Pushchino, Russia,April 1999, the IUGG General Assembly in Birmingham,UK, July 1999, and the XVth International INQUA Con-gress in Durban, South Africa.

During the April 1999 conference in Pushchino, Barrypresented a plenary presentation on “Status and RecentAdvances in Cryospheric Databases” co-authored withseveral Russian contributors: Burgess presented a reporton Canadian monitoring activities, and Brown assistedby Vladimir Romanovsky and Russian colleagues con-ducted a panel and roundtable on the IPA/GlobalClimate Observatory System (GCOS) GTNet-P.

Following a meeting in Southampton in January 1999among Branson, Clark and Brown, Branson redesignedand updated the IPA web site. In July 1999, Branson,Barry, Brown and Sharon Smith representing Burgessmet during the IUGG/GTOS meetings in Birmingham,UK, and discussed additional web site developments in-cluding GTNet-P linkages. An informal meeting to dis-cuss Committee and monitoring activities was convenedat the AGU meeting in December 1999. The GeologicalSurvey of Canada has established a web page on per-mafrost research and data in Canada: http://sts.gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/permafrost/

Clark and Brown met with the Southern HemisphereWorking Group during the INQUA Congress in August.Procedures to input Southern Hemisphere site informa-tion and data to GGD were discussed as were web link-ages. Members of the Committee are in contact with thePermafrost and Climate in Europe (PACE) project con-cerning data transfer to GGD.

As a follow up project to the NSIDC NSF-supportedGGD Pilot Project, David Gilichinsky and colleaguesprepared soil temperature records for 145 Russian stations. The activity is coordinated under the dataexchange agreements of Working Group VIII of theU.S.-Russia Agreement on Cooperation in the Field ofProtection of the Environment. The data are scheduledfor release in 2000.

Barry was appointed co-chair of the World ClimateResearch Programmeme (WCRP)-Climate andCryosphere (CLIC) project. The report of the first CLICmeeting in Utrecht, July 1998 is available from WCRP.Revision of the draft CLIC Science and ImplementationPlan conti-nues following the second Task Group meet-ing held in Grenoble in August 1999. Following review inNovember 1999 the plan will be submitted to the JointScientific Committee of the WCRP in March 2000. Infor-mation on CLIC is available on the ACSYS/CLIC ProjectOffice web site hosted at the Norsk Polar Institute inTromsø, Norway(www.npolar.no/acsys/CLIC/clicindex.html).

Roger Barry (rbarry@kryos.colorado.edu)

Report of Working Parties

5Frozen Ground

Working GroupsGlobal Change and Permafrost

Objectives are to facilitate analysis of changes in perma-frost and its distribution induced by climate change, andto promote knowledge about the impact of these changeson natural systems and human activities. A subgroupcoordinates Circumpolar Active Layer Moritoring(CALM) network.

Members and guests of the WG held a business meet-ing in San Francisco at the AGU conference in December,1998. Countries represented and participants includedCanada (4), Czech Republic (1), Germany (3), Russia (2),and USA (10). Consensus was achieved that the WGshould support five major initiatives in its activities:

Progress has been achieved in each of these topical ar-eas as follows.

IPCC, Third Assessment Report (TAR): O.A.Anisimov is a Co-ordinating Lead Author and F.E. Nel-son is a Lead Author for Chapter 16, “Arctic and Antarc-tic”. Both participated in the Lead Authors Meeting forthe TAR in Geneva, Switzerland (January 1999) and in ameeting for Chapter 16 in Cambridge, UK in June 1999.An initial draft of the chapter was submitted in March1999; and a first-order draft of the TAR was completed inlate July and is currently in review by experts from acrossthe spectrum of disciplines concerned with climaticchange and its impacts. A number of WG members con-tributed to the material on permafrost in Chapter 16, in-cluding M. Burgess, C. Burn, V. Cermak, C. Harris, K.Hinkel, T. Osterkamp, A. Pavlov, V. Romanovsky, and T.Zhang. Although permafrost is treated in several of theregional chapters, primary attention is given to it inChapter 16. IPCC Lead Authors met in December, 1999,in Canberra, Australia, and a second-order draft isscheduled for the first half of 2000. Input from the Work-ing Group and other interested parties will again be so-licited. Results of activities and publications of otherWorking Parties and IPA Adhering Members can serveas input to the TAR review process. For the Second As-sessment published in 1996, the IPA prepared a draft as-sessment of permafrost-dominated changes, this ap-peared in Frozen Ground 15, June 1994.

CALM Network: WG members continue their involve-ment in the CALM Programme, coordinated through agrant to Ken Hinkel at the University of Cincinnati. Ac-tivities include continuation of annual data collection,archiving and posting data on the CALM web site, fur-ther development of sampling designs at pilot sites in

Northern Alaska, and participation in the meeting onCryosphere Monitoring in Pushchino, Russia (April1999). A new collaborative project between the Univer-sity of Delaware (F. Nelson, O. Anisimov) and the Uni-versity of Colorado (T. Zhang, R. Barry), concerned withstochastic variability of the active layer, has begun withsupport from the U.S. NSF. The project includes fundingfor field investigations into spatial variability at severalsites in Eurasia. V. Romanovsky and G. Clow have insti-tuted several new sites in northern and western Alaskato monitor the active layer and ground temperatures.

GCOS Permafrost Network: The WG is supporting ac-tivities of the IPA Executive Committee to develop andimplement the Global Terrestrial Network for Perma-frost (GTNet-P; see Long-Term Permafrost Observa-tions).

Future Working Group plans include a formal meetingduring the annual cryosphere conference in Pushchino,Russia, May 2000. Topics for discussion include reviewof the goals developed at the Yellowknife and San Fran-cisco meetings in 1998, the IPCC report, and the status ofthe GTNet-P. A paper detailing the scope, goals, andmethods of the CALM programme is currently in devel-opment by Brown, Hinkel, Nelson and others. A secondpaper on spatial modeling and analysis ingeocryological research is planned, and input will besought from a wide array of sources.

F. E. Nelson (fnelson@udel.edu)

Periglacial Processes and Environments

Objectives are to evaluate different methodologies andtechniques for monitoring periglacial processes, and topublish a manual of recommended techniques.

The WG agreed at the 1993 Permafrost Conference inBeijing to produce a handbook on recommended meth-ods to measure periglacial processes. The proposal re-ceived additional support at the IPA Council meetingsin Berlin (1995) and Bologna(1997). In Yellowknife, itwas decided that the single main objective of the WGshould be the production of the handbook, and that thishandbook should be available at the permafrost confer-ence in Switzerland in 2003.

The handbook is intended as a field handbook to beused during the conduct of periglacial research, and sug-gests certain standardisation measurement techniquesso that studies undertaken at different locations in bothnorthern and southern polar areas, and at high altitude,produce comparable results. It is not intended to be atextbook on periglacial techniques. The WG is now in theprocess of contacting lead authors and contributing au-thors. The production of the first draft of the individualsections is planned during the year 2000.

In connection with the Fifth International Conferenceon Geomorphology, Tokyo, 2001, a special session onperiglacial geomorphology and a field trip to the Japa-nese mountains are planned. Liaison with the IGU Com-mission on Climate Change and Periglacial Processes

- Play a substantive role in the activities of the Inter- governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC);- Continue support for the CALM network;- Develop criteria for standardized borehole mea- surements;- Continue development of a spatial perspective on permafrost and global change;- Advocacte for permafrost in global change aware- ness;

6 Frozen Ground

(CCPP; chaired by Jef Vandenberghe) will continue. TheIGU newsletter was distributed via e-mail to all inter-ested readers.

A website has been set up for the IGU Periglacial Com-mission and the IPA Working Group on Periglacial Proc-esses and Environments. The page includes details ofperiglacial meetings and a developing, global list ofemail and/or postal addresses of periglacial scientists athttp://www.cpes.susx.ac.uk/igu.

Anyone wishing to receive electronic copies of theCircular of the IGU Commission on Climatic Changeand Periglacial Environments and the IPA WorkingGroup on Periglacial Processes and Environments whohas not already notified their national representativeshould send their name, electronic and postal address to:j.b.murton@ sussex.ac.uk.

Ole Humlum (oleh@unis.no) and Norikazu Matsuoka(matsuoka@atm.geo.tsukuba.ac.jp)

Permafrost Engineering

Objectives are to collect information on the practices andprocedures of permafrost engineering in various regionsof the world, and to facilitate communications betweenpermafrost scientists.

An ad hoc meeting of the WG was held on August 19,1999, in Lincoln, NH, on the occasion of the 10th Interna-tional Cold Regions Engineering Conference. Memberspresent were Branko Ladanyi, Kaare Flaate, ArneInstanes and Rupert Tart. The meeting dealt mainly withthe organization of future conferences and the possibili-ties of publishing the WG contributions. Specifically, theWG members are encouraged to attend the InternationalWorkshop on Permafrost Engineering in Longyearbyen,and to publish the material they promised at the Yellow-knife WG meeting.

In the past year, L. N. Khroustalev developed a de-tailed proposal for a project entitled “Effect of climaticwarming on infrastructure stability in permafrost re-gions”

The objective is to develop a method for design of engi-neering structures in permafrost regions affected by glo-bal warming. The final output will include a manual forselection of global warming scenarios for engine-ering applications, and a database of climate and soilcharacteristics for different parts of the Earth’s perma-frost regions. The proposal was circulated by e-mailamong WG members. The approach was presented inTromsø in April as an invited contribution at the IASCworkshop on global change.

The following books are in progress:A new book, entitled Permafrost Engineering (Manag-

ing Editors, L.N. Khroustalev and E.D.Ershov) will bepublished in Russian in October 1999. The editors areseeking sponsorship for publishing the book in English.

A second edition of the book: An Introduction to FrozenGround Engineering by O.B. Andersland and B. Ladanyi,

is in preparation.Since the Yellowknife Conference, two Cold Regions

Engineering Conferences were organized by the Techni-cal Council on Cold Regions Engineering (TCCRE) ofthe American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE):

The Ninth International Conference on Cold RegionsEngineering was held in, Duluth, Minnesota, September28-30, 1998. The conference theme, “Cold RegionsImpacts on Civil Works”, dealt with new technologiesand methods, and successes and failures in practice (seeFrozen Ground 22).

The Tenth International Conference on Cold RegionsEngineering, held at Lincoln, NH, August 16-19, 1999,coincided with the 20th anniversary of the TCCRE. Theconference theme “Putting Research into Practice” con-sisted of 26 concurrent sessions in which 86 papers werepresented. Several IPA WG members presented papers(Instanes, Ladanyi, Tart, Vinson).

The annual Pushchino, Russia, conference was heldApril 20-23, 1999. The theme of the meeting was “Moni-toring of the Cryosphere”. Of great interest for perma-frost engineering was the section on “Monitoring ofNorthern Natural Technogenic Geosystems” consistingof 35 reports.

The International Workshop on Permafrost Engineer-ing, to be held in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, June 18-21,2000, is sponsored by the Nordic Council of Ministers,within the Nordic Arctic Research Programmeme 1998-2002, and co-sponsored by the IPA. The main themes ofthe Workshop are: Management of infrastructure devel-opment and preservation and environmental manage-ment in connection with planning, constructing, ope-rating and maintaining human activities in the Arctic.Contact Prof. K. Senneset (kaare.senneset@bygg.ntnu.no).

A scientific conference on The Environmental Con–ditions and the Prospects of a Sustainable Developmentof the Northern Pacific Area at the Turn of the Millen-nium, is planned for Magadan, Russia, March 21-24,2000. Contact WG Member, G. Perlshtein at svj@online.magadan.su

Branko Ladanyi ( bladanyi@mail.polymtl.ca)

Cryosol Working Group

Objectives are to establish interactions between geo–cryology and soil science, prepare a Cryosol monographand global Cryosol classification and circumpolar soildatabase, and organise the Third International Confer-ence on Cryopedology in Denmark in 2001.

Members of the working group met three times duringthe past year – in Denmark, Russia and Finland. Themeeting in Copenhagen was held on March 19, 1999, fol-lowing a Circumpolar Soil Database Meeting. Sevenmembers of the working group, from Russia, Germany,Denmark, the USA and Canada discussed:

(i) Plans for the Third International Conference on

7Frozen Ground

Cryopedology, August 20–24, 2001, Copenhagen, Den-mark, and the post-conference field trip on August 25–31. The themes of this conference are: cryogenic pro-cesses; genesis of Cryosols; soil ecology, carbon storageand cycling; Cryosols and the hydrogeochemical cycle;and the response of Cryosols to anthropogenic impactand global change.

(ii) Finalizing the contents of the Cryosol book andscheduling the completion and review of the papers. Theaim is to have the monograph available at the August2001 conference.

(iii) Coordination of the acquisition of soil temperaturedata (additional discussions were held at the Pushchinoconference in April 1999 – Sergey Goryachkin repre-sented the working group at this conference).

It was agreed that the circumpolar soil database wouldbe completed for the 2001 conference, and that the CWGwould continue cooperating with, and providing datafor, CALM, and co-operate with the European Soil Bu-reau (ESB), the Nordic countries soil database project,and ITEX. The CWG has been invited to organize an in-ternational symposium for the IUSS conference in Bang-kok in 2002.

A number of CWG members participated in the In-ternational Conference on Monitoring of the Cryospherein Pushchino in April 1999. The CWG organized aspecial session, “Monitoring of Soils in Cold Regions.”This special session and the CWG meetings included tenoral papers and four posters, all by Russian authorsexcept for the papers from Germany and Canada. Thepresentations concerned carbon fluxes and their spatialand temporal dynamics, soil temperatures and the dif-ference in their dynamics in relation to ecotones andstages of post-anthropogenic succession, and some char-acteristics of the solid phase of the soil.

The CWG met in Finland in August during the Inter–national Excursion on Frost-Affected Soils in FinnishLapland. Seven members of the CWG, representingFinland, Russia, Germany, the United States andCanada, were present. They discussed the problem pre-sented by the fact that the Pergelic soil temperature re-gime classification was not included in the 1998 US SoilTaxonomy. As a result all areas with perennially frozensoils were excluded. Thus, most of the world’s perma-frost areas cannot be classified into any of the new soiltemperature regime classes. It was decided, in order toestablish soil temperature limits for permafrost-affectedsoils, that the working group will assemble available soiltemperature data for these soils. These data should in-clude information about the site from which the tem-perature data was collected. Assembly of the soil tem-perature data and development of site data will begin inFall 1999.

Problems with the FAO/ISSS World Reference Base ofSoil Resources (WRB) classification of perennially frozenorganic soils were also discussed. Members felt that theexclusion of perennially frozen organic soils from theWRB Cryosolic major soil group is a contradiction of

the WRB concept that its classification should be an um-brella over other soil classifications and should reflectthe concepts of these classifications.

Since both major classifications of perma-frost-affected soils (US and Canada) include the perenni-ally frozen organic soils in either the Gelisol (US) orCryosol (Canada) orders, it was felt that the WRB classi-fication should also reflect this approach.

Other working group activities included participationin: (a) The 9th International Tundra Experiment (ITEX)meeting in Michigan, USA January 5–9, 1999: The threeCWG members present developed a list of informationrequired to determine the minimal soil data needed tocharacterise, describe and sample soils according to ac-cepted methods and standards. These data will provideinformation about nutrient status, pH and other chemi-cal and physical properties necessary to study soil veg-etation relationships on the ITEX vegetation plots. TheCWG will continue to co-operate with ITEX.

(b) The International Excursion on Frost-Affected Soilsin Finnish Lapland: This eight-day excursion, August24–31, 1999, was organised by M-L . Raisanen and G.Broll as part of the CWG activities, and was held imme-diately after the Nordic Symposium on Changes in Per-mafrost and Periglacial Environment (organised by M.Seppala). Seven CWG members attended the sympo-sium . The main objective of the excursion was to exam-ine cryoturbated non-permafrost soils, especiallyPodzols, under various vegetation types at various ele-vations. It was interesting to observe the amount ofcryoturbation even though none of the soils containedpermafrost within the 2-m control section.

Charles Tarnocai (tarnocaict@em.agr.ca) andSergey Goryachkin (pedology@igras.geonet.ru)

Coastal and Offshore Permafrost

The objective is to encourage interactive investigationson the subjects of onshore, transitional and offshore per-mafrost and hydrates.

In recent years field work has been carried out inLaptev Sea, the coast of West Siberia, and along theCanadian Beaufort Sea.

A number of coastal reports were presented at the 1999Pushchino conference related to problems of sea-landinteractions. They included the formation and evolutionof offshore permafrost. An ad hoc meeting of theWorking Group included informal presentations inpreparation for the Fall 1999 workshop (see below). Rep-resentatives from the German and several Russianorganizations, the Geological Survey of Canada, and theUniversity of Alaska participated. The May 2000Pushchino International Conference will include a spe-cial session dealing with problems of sea-land interac-tions and, offshore and coastal permafrost formation andevolution.

The Fifth Workshop on Russian-German Cooperationon the Laptev Sea was held in St. Petersburg, 26-29

8 Frozen Ground

November 1999. It was organzied by J. Thiede (Director,AWI, Bremerhaven, and GEOMAR, Kiel) and I. Frolov(Director, State Research Center, Arctic and Antarctic In-stitute, St. Petersburg), and sponsored by the Germanand Russian Ministries for Science and Technology.Themes included: on- and off-shore permafrost and theirfeedbacks and evolution; terrestrial/marine interactionsin the coastal zone; short- and long-term environmentalchanges in the central Siberian Arctic.

Recent field studies and reports suggest that sedimentyield to the Arctic shelf resulting from erosion of ice-richcoastlines may produce quantities of sediments equal orgreater than input from river discharge.

A workshop was held in Woods Hole, Massachusetts,November 2-4, 1999, to document regional rates of trans-gression and regression as a function of ice content ofpermafrost, near-shore bathymetry, sediment trans–port and deposition, and sea level changes. Workshopobjectives and accomplishments included: (1) develop–ment of a common classification system for coastalmapping in high-latitudes for the purpose of estimatingcoastal change sensitivity and erosion potential; (2) iden-tification and description of techniques presentlyused for coastal mapping and erosion measurements inhigh-latitude environments; and (3) development ofestimates of erosion rates for representative circum-Arc-tic coastlines. Approximately 45 participants attendedfrom Russia, USA, Canada, and Europe , including anumber of students. The workshop was organized un-der the auspices of the Working Group’s Coastal ErosionSubgroup and sponsored by the U.S. NSF as part of itsRussian-American Initiative on Shelf-Land Environ-ments in the Arctic (RAISE). Workshop abstracts can beobtained on email from the host organizer, Jerry Brown(jerrybrown@igc.org). Members of the Working Groupmet informally at the Woods Hole workshop.

A Coastal Erosion Subgroup meeting hosted by AWI,was held in Potsdam in June and attended by Felix Are,Misha Grigoriev, Hans Hubberten, Erk Reimnitz, VolkerRachold, and Steven Solomon(Chair).

Nikolai Romanovskii (nromanovsky@glas.apc.org )and Hans Hubberten (hubbert@awi-potsdam.de)

Southern Hemisphere Permafrost and PeriglacialEnvironments

The objectives are to create a scientific platform to simu-late interaction between permafrost and periglacial re-searchers in the Southern Hemisphere, and to synthesizepermafrost and periglacial data and information, includ-ing existing IPA initiatives in the region.

The Working Group organized IPA participation in theXV INQUA Congress, in Durban, South Africa, August1999. The Working Group and members of the SouthernAfrican Adhering Body organized a poster session,a workshop, business meeting and post-conference ex-cursion.

The poster session on Southern Hemisphere perma-frost and periglacial research included reviews ofperiglacial research in continental and maritime Antarc-tica, Patagonia and the Andes, New Zealand, Tasmaniaand Southern Africa. Other presentations highlightedAntarctic permafrost and valley asymmetry, maritimeAntarctic frost environments, Southern African block–streams, stone-banked lobes and screes and regional andglobal data and monitoring systems.

A combined workshop and business meetingchaired by Jan Boelhouwers and Kevin Hall includedIan Meiklejohn (RSA), Eric Colhoun (Australia),DarioTrombotto (Argentina), Jim Bockheim (USA),Stefan Grab (RSA), Warren Dickinson (NZ), PaulAugustinus (NZ), Jerry Brown (IPA/USA), YoshihikoKariya (Japan), Francesco Dramis (Italy) and severalparticipants from the UK. Participants reviewed currentactivities in their respective regions. Limited funding,perceptions of low relevance, and lack of continuity indata collection with respect to periglacial/permafrostresearch in the Southern Hemisphere were highlighted.Opportunities for climatic change research can be usedto raise the profile of permafrost/periglacial research asis the case with PACE in Europe.

The regional networks of the SHWG appear to be apractical way of dealing with the problems of com-munication; each region has its own representative whocan disseminate the information and thus helps over-come language barriers.

Mechanisms and schedules for the compilation of a SHbibliography, permafrost map inventory and researchdirectory were reviewed. It was suggested to have aSHWG representative on the IPA Data Committee tooversee SH data and facilitate CD production for the nextInternational Permafrost Conference.

Mike Clark met with the cochairs to discuss methodsfor compiling these inventories and development of aSH web site. The SHWG committed to contribute to-wards the activities of the GTNet-P and its active layerand borehole monitoring.

The desirability of Australia/New Zealand member-ship in the IPA was discussed with Eric Colhoun andPaul Augustinus. Colhoun described procedures for ob-taining access to Australian Antarctic research sites. Ap-plication procedures for IPA involvement in the Scien-tific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) and itsGeo-logy Working Group were discussed. The nextmeeting of the WG is proposed for the 2001 meeting inJapan.

A post-conference excursion to examine the Quater-nary periglacial landforms of the Lesotho highlands wasorganized by the Southern African Permafrost Group.Leaders were Ian Meiklejohn, Paul Sumner, Stefan Grab,Jan Boelhouwers and Kevin Hall. During four days, 27delegates from 13 countries debated the Quaternarylandscape evolution of the highlands. The aim wasto outline the problems pertaining to Quaternary

9Frozen Ground

periglacial issues in Southern Africa. Day one travel wasby vans and four-wheel drive vehicles from Durbanthrough the spectacular scenery of the southern Africanhighlands where delegates were lodged in a mountainchalet at the edge of the main Escarpment. The next twodays were spent visiting sites which are central to de-bates on Quaternary glaciation and periglaciation of theregion. Northern Hemisphere delegates from glacialgeomorphological background found a resemblance tothe flood basalt landscapes of the Faroe Islands and Ice-land, while Southern Hemisphere delegates recognizedsimilarities in geological framework with otherGondwana remnants. Issues on valley asymmetry,nivation hollows and cryoplanation benches were de-bated. One field day centered around a periglacialblockstream about 1.5 km long (cover photograph).

The lack of unequivocal indicators for Quaternary gla-ciation necessitates reliance on sediment evidence forwhich a temporal framework has yet to be established.Field trip guidebooks are available from Ian Meiklejohn(kim@scientia.up.ac.za).

Jan Boelhouwers (janboel@uwc.ac.za) and Kevin Hall (hall@unbc.ca)

Task ForcesRock Glacier Dynamics and Permafrost Creep

The objectives are to establish the basis for and initiatenumerical modelling concerning flow of ice/rock mix-tures on slope. The activities are jointly organized by IPAand the International Commission on Snow and Ice.

During a two-year period (1999/2000), attempts willbe made to define the presently available experience on,and to make recommendations for, numerical modellingof rock glacier flow. This effort will include an overviewof recent and ongoing studies that provide quantitativeinformation from drilling, geophysical soundings, geo-detic and photogrammetric monitoring, and measure-ments and datalogging of surface conditions. Advancedconcepts of thermo-mechanically coupled flow underpermafrost conditions will be brought together with therapidly growing evidence from sophisticated modernfield experiments. Two fundamentally important as-pects of rock glaciers will be of particular interest: (1) theground thermal conditions (permafrost) that allow forthe formation and/or the long-term preservation of sub-

surface ice; and (2) the composition of the ice/rock-mix-tures, i.e., the amount and distribution of ice existing be-low the surface and enabling the sustained motion. Themain topics will be dealt with by the followingexperts:

Composition: Matsuoka (rocks) and Elconin (ice)Thermal conditions: Humlum (surface), Vonder Mühll

(boreholes)Geometry/kinematics: Kääb, Kaufmann (photogram–

metry, geodesy)Rheology: Ladanyi (lowlands) and Springman (moun-

tains)During fall/winter (1999-2000), state-of-the-art re-

ports will be made available on the Internet for open re-view and feed-back. At the same time, recommendationswill be prepared for numerical modelling of the complexsystem of creeping ice/rock-mixtures. A workshop isplanned in conjunction with the Mapping/ModellingTask Force and the PACE project to complete the study,review the texts and prepare a final product at the 1st Eu-ropean Permafrost Conference, Rome, March 2001.

Contacts are being maintained with the InternationalWorkshop on Debris-covered Glaciers, to be held atthe University of Washington, Seattle, Washington,U.S.A., 13-15 September 2000 (M. Nakawo, Institutefor Hydrospheric-Atmospheric Sciences, Nagoya Uni-versity 464-8601, Japan, Fax:81-52-789-3436, E-mail:nakawo@ihas.nagoya-u.ac.jp).

WilfriedHaeberli(haeberli@geo.unizh.ch)andBernardHallet (hallet@u.washington.edu)

Mapping and Distribution Modelling of MountainPermafrost

The objective is to develop systematic strategies formapping and modelling the distribution of mountainpermafrost at different scales. The Task Force builds onthe accomplishments of the earlier Working Group onMountain Permafrost.

Mapping and distribution modelling of permafrost inthe mountains and high plateaus are research activitiesof high interest, because of their linkages to climatechange and hazard assessment. An e-mail list of inter-ested colleagues was established to facilitate communi-cation and is maintained from Oslo with a current list ofabout 50 addresses. Participation is open to all interestedpersons.

In Europe, mapping and modelling permafrost distri-bution is carried out in several countries, partly withinthe EU-funded project PACE (Permafrost and Climate inEurope). The mapping of permafrost in the Asian andEurasian mountains are providing small-scale maps ofpermafrost distribution of mountain ranges, eg. for theTien Shan (S. Marchenko, Kazakstan). Based on the IPA-sponsored visit of N. Sharkhuu (Mongolia) to Kazakstanin June 1999, a formal programme of cooperation be-tween Mongolia and Kazakstan was developed on per-mafrost mapping and ground temperature monitoring,

Participants in the INQUA periglacial excursion

10 Frozen Ground

including the CALM sites in both countries. An IPA-sponsored visit to Mongolia is under consideration inconnection with the International Conference onGeomorphology to be held in Japan in 2001.

The principal aim of the Task Force is to define thestate- of -the-art for mapping and modelling of perma-frost in mountains and high elevations. Major chal-lenges in this context are to evaluate existing models indifferent mountainous regions, the value of combiningdifferent approaches (empirical vs. physical models) atvarious spatial scales, and the application of geographi-cal information technology. Preparation of a comprehen-sive document is essential for defining and co-ordinating further requirements and activities withinmountain permafrost research. Bernd Etzelmüller andMartin Hoelzle (ETH/Zurich) will prepare an outline ofthe document during this year. It will be distributed forcomments.

A joint mountain permafrost symposium is plannedbetween the two Task Forces (Mapping and DistributionModelling of Mountain Permafrost and Rock Glacier Dy-namics and Permafrost Creep) and the PACE project at the1st European Permafrost Conference, Rome, March 2001.Central topics at this conference will include tem–perature analyses of boreholes, geophysical soundingsof permafrost, modelling of permafrost distribution,geotechnical hazards and modelling of permafrostcreep. We will discuss progress and further steps in de-veloping and testing permafrost distribution models atdifferent scales.B. Etzelmüller(bernd.etzelmuller@geografi.uio.no) and

M. Hoelzle (hoelzle@vaw.baum.ethz.ch)

Isotope/Geochemistry of Permafrost

Objectives are to promote the application of isotope geo–chemical methods in permafrost research, to identify themain gaps in knowledge for successful application ofisotopic methods in permafrost studies, and to developan internationally accepted protocol for a WG. No for-mal report of this TF is available. There is close coopera-tion between the TF members with the isotopesubproject of IGCP project 415 Glaciation and Reorgani-zation of Asia’s Drainage (GRAND), which held meet-ings during the INQUA Congress and at the GeologicalSociety of America meeting in Denver in October 1999.

Related Working Parties ActivitiesPermafrost And Climate in Europe (PACE)European Commission Environment and Climate Re-search Programmeme (DG XII) Contract ENV4-CT97-0492

“Climate change, mountain permafrost degradationand geotechnical hazard”.

The three-year PACE project, initiated in December1977, is co-ordinated at the University of Cardiff (UK),and includes partners from the Universities of Oslo(Norway), Stockholm (Sweden), Giessen (Germany),Zürich (Switzerland), ETH-Zürich (Switzerland), Roma3 (Italy) and Complutense, Madrid (Spain). The PACEprogrammeme was briefly described in Frozen Ground 21(Dec. 1997 p. 3-4). Full details, including participants,field sites, and progress in the six work packages, can beobtained from the PACE web site http://www.cf.ac.uk/uwc/earth/pace/.

A major aim is to establish a network of monitoredboreholes in permafrost along a north-south transectthrough the mountains of Europe, from Svalbard in thenorth to the Sierra Nevada in the south. Long-term moni-toring of mountain permafrost temperatures will pro-vide a significant contribution to the Global Climate Ob-serving System (GCOS) Global Terrestrial Network -Permafrost (GTNet-P). In addition, changes in active-layer thickness will be reported to the CALMprogrammeme. To date, deep permafrost boreholes (atleast 100 m) have been drilled and instrumented atJanssonhaugen, Svalbard, Norway (May 1998), theStelvio Pass, Italian Alps (May/June 1998) and atJuvvasshøe, Jotunheimen, Norway (August 1999). Shal-low (10 - 20m) boreholes have also been instrumented atJanssonhaugen and Juvvasshøe, adjacent to the deepholes, to investigate in detail the near-surface thermalregimes. Additional shallow holes have been drilled andinstrumented on Schilthorn in Switzerland (October1998) and the Valetta Peak, Sierra Nevada, Spain (Sep-tember 1999). Remaining deep boreholes at Tarfala (Swe-den) and in Switzerland will be drilled in 2000. The firstyear’s geothermal data from Janssonhaugen were pre-sented at the International Glaciological Society (IGS),meeting in Zürich, Switzerland in August 1999 (Isaksenet al. in press).

Research is also focused on prediction of spatialchanges in mountain permafrost distribution resultingfrom Global Climate Change, and relating these topotential increases in slope hazards associated withthawing of frozen ground. Geophysical surveys offer thepossibility of mapping and characterisation of discon-tinuous mountain permafrost. Methodologicalimprovement and application of methods rarely used inthe difficult terrain of mountain permafrost has been themajor task of the PACE Geophysics Work Package.Within these categories, ground penetrating radar (GPR)in winter and in summer, spontaneous potential SP, two-dimensional resistivity imaging (tomography), two-di-mensional refraction seismics, EM-31 measurementsand radiometry have been tested and continue to be de-veloped. Results were reviewed by Vonder Mühll et al.(in press) at the Zürich IGS meeting. Surveys have beenundertaken at the Stelvio Pass (Italy), Schilthorn and theZermatt areas (Switzerland), in the Sierra Nevada(Spain), in Tarfala (Sweden) as well as in Jotunheimen

11Frozen Ground

and Svalbard (Norway). In Jotunheimen, the transitionfrom permafrost to no-permafrost was detected by ap-plying EM-31, DC resistivity tomography, refractionseismics and BTS measurements.

Mapping of permafrost distribution within PACE siteswill test numerical modelling currently under develop-ment within the programme. A PACE GIS-based map-ping system is being coordinated by the University ofOslo, and will also be used as part of a new hazard assess-ment methodology under development within the pro-gramme. Permafrost energy flux measurements are inprogress at automatic meteorological stations estab-lished in Svalbard and Jotunheimen (Norway), Murtèl-Corvatsch and Schilthorn (Switzerland), Stelvio Passand Foscagno (Italy) and the Sierra Nevada (Spain). Nu-merical modelling of mountain permafrost based on en-ergy balance calculations and digital terrain models toprovide altitude/aspect inputs is being directed by theUniversity of Zürich (Mittaz et al. in press).

Thawing mountain permafrost may pose major poten-tial geotechnical hazards in the high mountains of Eu-rope (see for instance King and Kalisch, 1998). Slope in-stability processes including slow soil movements(solifluction) and rapid failures such as shallow land-slides, mudflows, debris flows and rock falls, may be-come significant problems where permafrost is ice-rich.Laboratory experiments at the Cardiff UniversityGeotechnical Centrifuge Centre aim to model processesof thaw-related instability and identify trigger levels andmovement mechanisms. Scaled centrifuge tests at 10 and20 gravities have to date investigated processes ofgelifluction (see Davies et al. in press) and thaw-relatedmudflow. In addition, direct shear tests are underway atthe University of Dundee to investigate thermal influ-ences on strength characteristics of ice-filled rock joints(Davies et al. in press). Field investigations ofgeotechnical hazards associated with mountain perma-frost have been undertaken during 1999 in the Valtellinaregion, Italy, and the Valetta Peak, Sierra Nevada, Spain.

The PACE project provides not only a researchprogramme in which seven European countries areparticipating, but has fostered genuine international col-laboration. Research teams with specific expertise haveparticipated in fieldwork in other countries, and com-mon data collection and analysis methodologies havebeen developed. The Spring 1999 co-ordination meetingin Svalbard was hosted by UNIS, and included two daysof research presentations followed by a two-day field ex-cursion by snowmobile. The autumn coordination meet-ing, in Giessen, Germany, allowed detailed research re-ports to be discussed, and planning for the next phase ofthis European permafrost monitoring programmeme tobe accomplished.

References

Davies. M.C.R., Hamze, O., Lumsden, B.W. and Harris,

C. (in press). Laboratory measurements of the shearstrength of ice-filled rock joints. Annals of Glaciology.

Isaksen, K., Vonder Mühll, D., Gubler, H., Kohl, T. andSollid, J.L. (in press). Ground surface temperature recon-struction based on data from a deep borehole in perma-frost at Janssonhaugen, Svalbard. Annals of Glaciology.

King L. and Kalisch, A. (1998). Permafrost distributionand implications for construction in the Zermatt area,Swiss Alps. Permafrost, Proceedings of the 7th InternationalConference, Yellowknife, Canada, 569-574.

Mittaz, C., Hoelzle, M. and Haeberli, W. (in press). Firstresults and analyses of energy flux measurements overalpine permafrost. Annals of Glaciology.

Vonder Mühll, D., Hauk, C., and Lehmann, F. (inpress). Verification of geophysical models in Alpine per-mafrost by borehole information. Annals of Glaciology.

Charles Harris (harrisc@cardiff.ac.uk)

Long-Term Permafrost Observations

The IPA Council resolution in June 1998 endorsed thedevelopment of a permafrost monitoring network (GT Net-P). The proposed network would function underthe joint auspices of the IPA and the Global Climate Ob-servatory System (GCOS)/ Global Terrestrial Observa-tory System (GTOS) programmemes of the WMO, FAO,UNEP, UNESCO, and ICSU. A number of supportive ac-tivities to implement the resolution were accomplishedsince the Yellowknife conference. To facilitate IPA plan-ning of the network, the Executive Committee appointedan ad-hoc steering committee with members JerryBrown (chair), Wilfried Haeberli, Roger Barry, MargoBurgess, and Fritz Nelson.

The GTNet-P network consists of two sets of ob-servations: Active layer properties and permafrost tem-peratures and is initially divided into three sub-net-works: CALM, PACE and the new network of GlobalBoreholes.

The Circumpolar Active Layer Monitoring (CALM)network is already in place, with plans to expand it formore comprehensive coverage into both hemispheres.CALM observes active layer thickness at 80 or more sitesand soil temperature and moisture at some sites. TheCALM web site at the University of Cincinnati maintainsa summary of annual measurements and many of the ini-tial data sets. The Permafrost and Climate in Europe(PACE) programme represents the first well-organizedinternational programme for boreholes in the perma-frost regions.

Starting in Fall 1998, IPA conducted an informal surveyof individuals and organizations having existingboreholes that are available for future measurements.This initial survey revealed that at least several hundredlocations throughout both hemispheres are candidatesites for future long-term observations of permafrosttemperatures and related climatic variables. The com-plete list of boreholes and related network information

12 Frozen Ground

was placed on the CALM web site. Table 1 contains asummary by country, depth class, and co-location withPACE and CALM sites.

Based on the survey a draft plan for implementing thenetwork was prepared and submitted to GCOS.

Components of the plan included the CircumpolarActive Layer Monitoring (CALM) network; the PACEprogramme, and the results of the boreholes inventory.The Global Climate Observing System Steering Commit-tee (GCOS SC), at its February 9-12, 1999, meeting in Ge-neva, formally approved the formation of the GlobalTerrestrial Network-Permafrost (GTNet-P). The IPAhas overall responsibilities for development and ma-nagement of the GTNet-P.

In order to review progress to date and explain GTNet-P, several meetings were held in Pushchino, Russia, 20-23 April 1999, as part of the International Conference onMonitoring the Cryosphere. These sessions and round-tables were lead by A. Pavlov, V. Balobaev, M. Burgess, V.Romanovsky, and J. Brown. Additional boreholes inRussia were identified. A metadata format was reviewedand revised. Boreholes associated with engineeredstructures, but in relatively undisturbed sites, are to beincluded. At its 26-27 April meeting in Copenhagen, theIPA Executive Committee approved the continueddevelopment of the GTNet-P, in close collaboration withIPA working parties.

An international meeting of GCOS/GTOS TerrestrialObservation Panel for Climate was held in Birmingham,UK in July 1999 during the International Union of Geo-desy and Geophysics (IUGG) general assembly. JerryBrown and Sharon Smith, Geological Survey of Canada(GSC), represented the GTNet-P and presented the fol-lowing plan of activities:

- Complete initial borehole survey and maintain metadata inventory on web.

- Prepare periodic data reports (GSC Open File Re- ports).

- Standardize field measurements and equipment.- Representatives meet annually at AGU and/or

Pushchino meetings.- Prepare synthesis report for VIII ICOP (Switzerland,

2003)- Report to GCOS/GTOS.Several national activities are underway to facilitate

the development of GTNet-P. In Canada a series of GTOSworkshops are being held to identify programmes forcryosphere monitoring. The Geological Survey of Cana-da’s new permafrost web site will host the on-lineGTNet-P borehole metadata and data. All informationwill be archived as part of the GGD in the WDC, in Boul-der, USA. Several programmes are observing boreholetemperatures in central and northern Alaska. A detailedfive-year GTNet-P proposal was prepared at the Univer-sity of Alaska to facilitate the standardization and acqui-sition of international field measurements on an annualbasis, provide for exchange and centralization of the

data including maintenance of the GSC/GTNet-P weblocation, and preparation of periodic review reports.Sources of funding are being solicited. Plans for theforthcoming year (2000) include identification of repre-sentative borehole sites, compilation of metadata andsummary of existing data. The metadata form for nomi-nating borehole sites is available on several sites by email(see back cover).

During the past year, liaison was established with theInternational Heat Flow Commission (IHFC) of the In-ternational Association of Seismology and Physics of theEarth’s Interior (IASPEI). The IHFC has had a long-standing programme of measuring and analyzing earthtemperatures for climate change from deep bore-holes throughout the world. It is currently extendingthese observations to permafrost regions. Additionalcollaboration among IPA, GTNet-P and IHFC will be de-veloped.

Jerry Brown (jerrybrown@igc.org)

Table 1. Summary of Active Layer (CALM) and Permafrost Borehole Sites by

Country (compiled by Jerry Brown, March 1999). P=PACE borehole; ( )=

number of boreholes associated with CALM sites.

13Frozen Ground

AustriaIn Austria permafrost research continues to focus on thedynamics and selected characteristics of active rock gla-ciers. Viktor Kaufmann (Graz University of Technology)has recently established geodetic/photogrammetricmonitoring of velocity and vertical changes of rock gla-cier surfaces by different methodological approaches atthree sites in the Hohe Tauern Range (Central Alps).Especially in the case of the Doesen rock glacier (whichwas presented at the 7 th International Conference onPermafrost in Yellowknife) a lot of quantitative infor-mation is now available providing data for discussion ofrheology kinematics in connection with the IPA TaskForce on rock glacier dynamics.

Karl Krainer (University of Innsbruck) has startedseveral activities in the Hohe Tauern range as well as inthe Tyrolean Alps. His working group emphasizessedimentological and hydrological investigations (wa-ter and ground temperature, discharge, hydrochemicalcharacteristics and tracing experiments in order to un-derstand runoff systems). Furthermore, surface velo–city measurements using GPS techniques are carried outin some of the study areas.

Setting up a permafrost monitoring network in theAustrian Alps is a very important task for the near fu-ture. A first initiative has been taken by Hans Stoetter(University of Innsbruck). His project started with col-lecting data on different climatic parameters (especiallysnow cover) and establishing a meta-database of perma-frost relevant information available from the Austrianand nearby Italian Alps (Southern Tyrol). In addition,temperature dataloggers were installed in permafrostareas of the Tyrolean Alps. Similar work in the HoheTauern Range has been done by Gerhard Lieb (Univer-sity of Graz, Institute of Geography). Some of thesestudy sites are localized in permafrost areas outside rockglaciers and will contribute to the CALM network by theyear 2000.

Gerhard Karl Lieb (gerhard.lieb@kfunigraz.ac.at)

CanadaFollowing an offer made by Don Hayley (Chair, CNC/IPA) to the IPA Council at the time of the VII-ICOP (Yel-lowknife), the Organizing Committee prepared a Post-Conference Report. The purpose of the report was todocument, for future organizing committees, the notifi-cation procedures, scheduling deadlines, paper submis-sion and review procedures, the conference format, andthe relevant associated conference administrative and fi-nancial details. This report (20 copies) was submitted tothe IPA Executive Committee in July 1999.

The report includes a conference summary and a col-lection of individual reports prepared by the respectiveSubcommittee Chairmen. General recommendationsinclude: (1) the conference venue should be one that canprovide the opportunity for delegates to experience local

permafrost conditions, (2) the technical programmeshould provide ample opportunity for informal discus-sions, should limit the number of concurrent sessions,and the report recommends an increase in poster presen-tations, (3) the IPA Working Groups should be taskedwith soliciting papers and organizing specialty sessionsin their areas of interest, and (4) the IPA needs to adopt amore organized approach to travel assistance for attend-ance at conferences, paying special attention to worthydelegates from countries with devalued currencies.

The Technical Programme Committee Report indi-cates that 440 abstracts were initially submitted to theOrganizing Committee and that 277 papers were eventu-ally received. Of these, 146 (52%) were accepted outrightor with minor revisions, 69 (25%) required major revi-sions and re-review, and 62 (22%) were not accepted. Ofthe 188 papers published in the Proceedings volume,30% were from Russia, 22% from Canada, 16% fromUSA, 9% from China, and 5% from Switzerland. Of the 60extended abstracts published in the Programme and Ab-stracts volume, 36% were from Russia, 16% from USA,and 15% from China. A total of 31 Associate Review Edi-tors, all but 2 from within Canada, handled the reviewprocess and a total of 198 individuals from a number ofcountries are listed as having acted as referees. Detailedrecommendations concerning the paper review andpublication procedures are given.

Following submission of this report, the OrganizingCommittee was allowed to stand down. The new mem-bership of the Canadian National Committee for the In-ternational Permafrost Association (CNC/IPA) was for-mally announced in the Fall of 1999. The following havebeen appointed until December 31, 2003: ProfessorMichel Allard (Département de Géographie, UniversitéLaval) - Chair, Mrs Margo Burgess (Geological Survey ofCanada, Ottawa) - Secretary, Professor Richard Fortier(Départment de géologie et de genie géologique,Université Laval) - member; Mr Alan Hanna (AGRAEarth and Environmental Limited, Calgary) - member;Mr Don Hayley (EBA Engineering, Edmonton) - mem-ber; Dr Brian Moorman (Earth Science Programme, Uni-versity of Calgary) - member; Dr Steve Solomon (Geo-logical Survey of Canada-Atlantic)- member; Mr PeterVician (Government of the Northwest Territories,Yellowknife) - member. The new CNC/IPA will hold itsfirst meeting in Ottawa at the end of January 2000. Thiswill coincide with a workshop to define the require-ments of a National Permafrost/Glaciers/Ice CapsMonitoring Network. The latter is being organized bythe Geological Survey of Canada with funding supportfrom Canada’s Climate Change Action Fund (CCAF)and Environment Canada.

At the Fall 1999 Canadian Geotechnical Society An-nual meeting in Regina, the Cold Regions Division pre-sented The R. J. E. Brown Award, for ‘...outstanding con-tributions to permafrost science and engineering ’, to J.Alan Heginbottom, now retired from the Geological Sur-

News from Members

14 Frozen Ground

vey of Canada, for his contribution to the work of theCNC/IPA, from 1984 until 1998.

The Canadian permafrost community was saddenedby the death of George Henry (Hank) Johnston, age 71, inlate August 1999. An internationally known permafrostengineer and author of the standard reference text ‘Per-mafrost: Engineering Design and Construction’, Hankbegan a distinguished career in 1953 with the Division ofBuilding Research, National Research Council ofCanada (NRCC). Hank retired from the NRCC in1993.

Current permafrost activities in Canada will bereported in the next issue of Frozen Ground.

Hugh French(hfrench@science.uottawa.ca)Don Hayley(hayley@eba.ca)

DenmarkAt Disko Island, central W Greenland, research on rockglacier dynamics and surface climate is being continuedby Ole Humlum, University of Copenhagen and theUniversity Courses on Svalbard (UNIS). DGPS survey-ing of three active rock glaciers was carried out this year.

Surface climate investigations were extended, usingvarious types of miniature dataloggers to measure sur-face and active layer temperatures. Automatic measure-ments of precipitation close to the rock glacier initiationline have been initiated. The timing of surface move-ments is experimentally recorded by means of vibration-sensitive dataloggers. Sampling of ice from rock glaciers,for isotopic analysis, has been continued and extended.The headwall weathering rate, and the rock glacier roleas a transport agent in high-relief arctic regions, are be-ing investigated. Five active rock glaciers located in vari-ous meteorological settings in Disko Island are now in-cluded in this general monitoring programmeme. InMellemfjord (W Disko) and at the Arctic Station (SDisko), two automatic meteorological stations (includ-ing measurement of active layer temperatures) havebeen in operation since 1993 and 1991.

Bo Elberling and co-workers (Institute of Geography,University of Copenhagen) are studying the environ-mental impact resulting from oxidizing sulfidic minetailings in the High Arctic. During the last three yearsfieldwork was carried out at the zinc-producingNanisivik Mine in Canada together with freezer experi-ments on oxygen diffusion and consumption in frozensulfidic waste material. The work is funded by the Envi-ronmental Department, Ministry of Environment andEnergy, Denmark. As part of the study, cold-tolerantsulfide-oxidizing bacteria have been identified in natu-ral and waste material from the Nanisivik area. Biologi-cal catalysis is responsible for about 1/3 of the observedoxidation, and bacteria are found to be active at tem-peratures as low as 4°C. High oxygen uptake rates andheavy metal release from well-drained tailings are ob-served during summer months, and snow accumula-tion during autumn and winter is considered responsi-

ble for reduced but surprisingly high pollution ratesthroughout most of the year. The project ends in 1999.

At Zackenberg, NE Greenland, a snow fence mani–pulation project was started in 1998 by Bjarne H.Jakobsen, Bo Elberling and Hanne H. Christiansen,(Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen). Inthe 1999 summer the first data was collected since themanipulation started. The effect of the snow fence wasreduced because of largely increased natural snow pre-cipitation during the 1998-1999 winter. Data on activelayer soil water and gas was collected in cooperationwith Ron Sletten (University of Washington, USA) andBirgit Hagedorn (Alfred Wegener Institute, Germany).Geoelectrical soundings were made in the Zackenbergarea as preparation for a coring programmeme in 2000.

On the Faroe Islands a new project called LINK (Link-ing land and sea at the Faroe Islands: Mapping and Un-derstanding North Atlantic Changes) was funded by theNorth Atlantic programmeme of the Danish ResearchCouncils for the period 1999-2001. One part of thisproject is monitoring periglacial processes in combina-tion with modern mountain climate. The first mountainmeteorological station in these islands was establishedduring the autumn of 1999. This included a shallow (12m) borehole with temperature monitoring. The MAAT atthe highest mountain tops is about 0-1°C, so pockets ofpermafrost could occur. This part of the LINK project iscarried out by Ole Humlum and Hanne H. Christiansen(Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen) andLis Mortensen (Museum for Natural History, TorshavnFaroe Islands).

Hanne H. Christiansen (hhc@geogr.ku.dk)

FinlandA Symposium on Changes in Permafrost and PeriglacialEnvironment at Kevo, northernmost Finland took place20-24 August 1999. It was organised by Matti Seppäläand Martti Eerola of the National Committee of Perma-frost Research and Technics in Finland. There were 23participants from 8 different countries. The paper andposter sessions had 15 presentations of both scientificand technical aspects of permafrost.

Thawing and formation of new permafrost was dem-onstrated to have taken place recently. Daily excursionswere run in Finnish Lapland and northern Norway. Noseparate proceedings will be published, but the paperswill be submitted to different journals.

Mattï Seppälä (matti.seppala@helsinki.fi)

GermanyH. L. Jessberger (Ruhr University, Bochum) with a teamof geotechnical engineers, continues to apply artificialground freezing for tunnelling in Germany and abroad.This technology has been used for the subway line U5 indowntown Berlin, where the subsoil is dominated byHolocene sand with a high water table. Freeze pipes,

15Frozen Ground

placed in microtunnels, produce a frozen soil ring atleast 2 m thick. For high capacity railroad tunnels androad tunnels of 3.5 to 6.5 km length in the Netherlands,artificial ground freezing was used for the constructionof traverse galleries between the two parallel main tun-nel tubes. The traverse galleries of up to 26 per tunnel areconstructed in very difficult subsoil conditions (fine tomedium sand or very soft organic clays with high watercontent and with about 400 kN water pressure). The rele-vant tunnels cross the Rotterdam Harbour (Botlek rail-road tunnel), the Westerschelde (Westerschelde Tunnelat Vlissingen) and the Groene Hardt. In Boston (USA),Rome and Naples (Italy) several major ground freezingapplications are in design state.

Permafrost aggradation and degradation during thelast 200 000 years was simulated numerically for twosections across Northern Germany (Bundesanstalt fürGeowissenschaften und Rohstoffe, Hannover) as part ofa multinational EU-project. Calculations are based on adetailed climate curve for this time period provided byJeff Boulton, University of Edinburgh and on detailedknowledge of the geological subsurface conditions. Cal-culations suggest up to eight periods of permafrost deve-lopment with maximum permafrost thickness varyingbetween 40 - 150m The roles of rivers and lakes in pre-venting permafrost development, talik-formation wasincluded in this modelling effort. Special attention waspaid to likely permafrost degradation scenarios in frontof the Scandinavian ice shield at the time of its max-imum advance into Northern Germany during theWeichselian stage.

The Potsdam Research Unit of the Alfred WegenerInstitute for Polar and Marine Research (HansHubberten) coordinates the multidisciplinary terrestrialportion of the joint German-Russian project “Laptev SeaSystem 2000”. As part of this research project, an expedi-tion to the Lena Delta region took place in July and Au-gust 1998. The expedition group was divided into threeteams:

Team 1 focused on modern processes in permafrost-affected soils and used a biological station of the LenaDelta Reserve on the Samoylov Island in the central partof the Lena Delta. Instruments were installed at 4measuring sites during 1998 fieldwork. Ongoing multi-disciplinary studies focus on the seasonal variability ofmodern processes in tundra soils. The main scientificobjectives were: 1 Study of the energy and water bal-ances of the active layer and the upper part of perma-frost; 2 Quantification of the climatic, pedogenic and soilmicrobial parameters which control the production, oxi-dation and emission rates of trace gases in soils; 3 Meas-urement of the carbon flux balances (CO2, CH4) at differ-ing tundra sites within the study area.

Team 2 focused on modern and ancient sedimentationin the Lena Delta and worked aboard the vessel Dunay.The main scientific goals were: 1 Sedimentation historyreconstruction of the Lena Delta; 2 Understanding the

influence of global, regional and local climatic variabi-lity on sedimentation in the Lena Delta; 3 Modern andancient sediment budget of the Lena Delta.

Team 3 focused on climate signals in ice-rich perma-frost deposits and worked at the key section of the LatePleistocene Ice Complex, Mamontovy Khayata, on theBykovsky Peninsula. Their multidisciplinary researchprogramme includes: 1 Complex cryolithological stud-ies; 2 Ground ice research, especially on ice wedges ofdiffering ages using various isotope and hydrochemicalanalyses; 3 Systematic paleontological research (mam-mal bones, insect fossils, rodents, plant remains, seeds);4 Extensive sampling for radiocarbon and OSL dating;5 Study of modern geocryological processes. The secondexpedition, started in April 1999, consisted of 7 fieldgroups. They studied the processes listed above for a fullseasonal cycle, from spring to late autumn. Sedimentcoring from the ice cover on lakes and lagoons in thespring, and an extensive coastal process investigation inthe Lena Delta and Laptev Sea in summer comprise aninvestigation of the environmental history of the LenaDelta. Paleoclimatic signals in ice-rich permafrost are in-vestigated on the Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island and ex-tend the sample base created in 1998. In addition,projects emphasising hydrologic and thermal dynamicsof the active layer, silicate weathering and the carbon cy-cle in high Arctic soils are ongoing. Automated sites wereinstalled in 1998 close to Ny-Ålesund, Spitsbergen and atZackenberg, NE Greenland, with water, gas and soilsampling.

To identify sedimentary and permafrost structureswithin the Lena Delta, sampling of sedimentary se-quences by shallow coring and through natural expo-sures, ground penetrating radar, and shallow seismicstudies, have all been carried out.

Mineralogy and geochemistry of the sediments showdetails about the processes controlling the late Quater-nary conditions of accumulation and deposition. Thegeophysical methods of sub-bottom profiling were two-fold: (1) A RAMAC impulse radar system proved to be aviable technique for mapping subsurface structures onland. The 100 MHz radar signal penetrated the perma-frost down to 30 m maximum and indicated wedges andice layers. Drilling was used to determine the geologiccomposition. (2) A sediment echo sounder was used ashigh-frequency pulse source for seismic surveying ofsediments of Lake Nikolay in the western Lena Delta. Itwas possible to characterise the geometry of basin fillsand changes in lake sedimentation as well as to identifythe permafrost table below talik zones.

The research group of the Geographical Institute, Uni-versity of Giessen, continued its studies in the EU-project PACE. In summer 1999 extensive field checkswere carried out concerning periglacial and natural haz-ard features originating in permafrost areas in theMattertal valley. At the new Grächen-Seetalhorn test sitegeomorphological mapping of periglacial features and

16 Frozen Ground

microclimatological measurements in the coarse blockydebris flow are being carried out. Correlation betweenslope processes and permafrost distribution were ana-lysed using GIS.

Slope processes were surveyed by geomorphologicmapping, permafrost distribution was investigated bymodelling (PERMAKART (F. Keller) and PERMAMAP(M. Hoelzle)) and BTS-mapping. The results of thegeomorphologic mapping show many different peri-glacial forms and processes in the Gornergrat area suchas rock glaciers, solifluction, rockfall and debris flows.By combining the results of the permafrost models andthose of the BTS-measurements the calculation of arealistic permafrost distribution was carried out. The re-sults of the GIS-analysis indicate a dependency ofsolifluction forms upon permafrost. The activity of rockglaciers seems closely connected to the occurrence ofperennially frozen ground. Modelling of rockfall- anddebris flow-trigger zones show that both processes canoccur in permafrost as well as in non-permafrost areas.

Alpine permafrost is also studied in the Zugspitzsummit area (highest peak in Germany) as part of theEU-project PACE by M. Gude (Department of Geogra-phy, Jena). Permafrost thermal conditions are monitoredby temperatures measurements in surface and bedrocksites. Based on model PERMAKART and PERMAMAPthe distribution of permafrost in the area is evaluated.

Monitoring and model results are aimed at improvingrisk assessment and management related to thawingpermafrost and slope instability in the area.

The occurrence and ecological implications of spo-radic permafrost in blocky scree slopes of non-alpinemountains in central Europe (altitudes less than 1000 masl.) is subject of a joint research programmeme by Mar-tin Gude/Roland Mäusbacher (Department of Geogra-phy, Jena) in co-operation with Roland Molenda (De-partment of Zoology, Jena) and other biologists. Themain aim is to understand the thermal regime and thestability of these permafrost sites by means of fieldmonitoring and modelling approaches.

Ground temperatures have been monitored in severalblock scree slopes in Germany and France for more thanfour years. Investigations on snow hydrologic processesand related sediment transport in the permafrost area ofSwedish Lappland (Kärkevagge, Abisko area) are beingcontinued by Martin Gude in co-operation with DieterScherer (Department of Geography, Basel, Switzerland)and Christer Jonasson (Abisko Scientific Research Sta-tion) in the framework of MOSAIC (Modelling ofSnowmelt and its Consequences). A field measurementcampaign was undertaken in 1998 and the next field re-search is planned for 2000.

In the Austdalur drainage basin (23 km²), located in themountains of the Icelandic Eastern Fjords (Austfirðir),A. Beylich, Halle University, has started studies of recentgravitational and fluvial mass transfer in a subarctic-oceanic periglacial environment free of permafrost, but

with Pleistocene glaciations and a steep, alpine relief.Annually, fluvial sediment transport in the main chan-nels clearly dominates over slope processes. Aquaticslope denudation (slope and rill wash) is the most impor-tant slope process, followed by geochemical denuda-tion, avalanches, rock- and boulder falls, creep, debrisslides/debris flows, and deflation. The intensity of re-cent processes is low.

Lorenz King & Martin Schlerf(lorenz.king@geo.uni-giessen.de)

ItalyDuring 1999 the following activities were performed bythe IPA Italian Adhering Body. In the EU PACE project:

- Monitoring of the thermal regime of the bedrockdown to 100 m depth in the Stelvio Pass borehole(ItalianAlps; 3,000 m asl.) and of the active layer at LaFoppa rock glacier;

- Chemical, physical and crystallographic analyses ofthe ground ice collected from the Foscagno rock glacierborehole;

-Development of a new spatial model of alpine perma-frost distribution, based on DTM and climatic para- me-ters (air temperature and snow cover);

-Analysis of the relationships between vegetationalecosystems and permafrost occurrence.

In 1999 a new three-year research project ‘Permafrostand Climate Change in Antarctica’ (PCCA) (F. Dramis)has been approved within the PRNA (National ResearchProject on Antarctica). The main topics are:

-Analysis and monitoring of the surface energy bal-ance and the active layer thermal regime in differentenvironmental conditions with particular reference tovegetational ecosystems and gas flux changes;

- Reconstruction of palaeoclimatic conditions from theanalysis of ground ice occurring in deglaciated areas.

In this framework, international cooperation pro-grammes have been started with the Antarctic Instituteof Argentina (Jorge Strelin) and the University of Ottawa(Hugh French); cooperation agreements are in progresswith research institutions of the UK, Brazil and SouthAfrica.

Investigations on present-day and Quaternaryperiglacial landforms and processes are in progress inthe Alps and the Apennines.

Francesco Dramis (dramis@uniroma3.it)Mauro Guglielmin (cannone.guglielmin@galactica.it)

KazakstanThe Kazakstan Alpine Permafrost Laboratory took partin the International Archaeological expedition in theAltai Mountains (Buchtarma Valley). It investigatedpermafrost in burial mounds and permafrost in naturalconditions. The low limit of the sporadic permafrost beltat approximately 1100 m asl. (49º20’N and 86º22’E) has

17Frozen Ground

been determined.The laboratory carried out monitoring of the thermal

regime of alpine permafrost, of seasonally frozen groundand dynamics of solifluction processes, kurums and theGorodetsky rock glacier in the Northern Tien Shan. Amanuscript about fossil debris flows near Almaty wasprepared for publication.

The cooperation programme of permafrost investiga-tion between Mongolia and Kazakstan will be initiatedin 1999, and continue until 2001. During 1998-1999 about20 articles on topics of cryogenic processes have beenpublished. Modelling of alpine permafrost distributionin connection with climate change continues in the TienShan Mountains.

A.P. Gorbunov (permafrost@astel.kz)

MongoliaDetailed permafrost maps of Mongolia at the scaleof 1:1 500000, and of the Selenge River Basin at thescale of 1: 500000 will be compiled by N. Sharkhuu in anew scientific project on Mongolian permafrost,running from 1999 to 2001. Likewise a map of seasonalfreezing and thawing at the scale of 1:1 500 000 will beprepared by D. Tumurbaatar. The compilation of thesemaps will be carried out on the basis of analyses of dataon Mongolian permafrost investigations obtainedduring the last 20 years. The maps will show distribu-tion, thickness, temperature, ice content and composi-tion of permafrost, cryogenic processes and phenomenaand depths of seasonal freezing and thawing of ground.Legends for the maps will be prepared in both Mongo-lian and English.

Monitoring of permafrost temperature (for GTNet-P)and active layer (for CALM) at several sites of theKhentei and Khubsugul mountain regions, Mongolia,have been conducted by N. Sharkhuu since 1996. Atthese sites ground temperatures in boreholes were mea-sured 10-25 years ago. In 1999 N. Sharkhuu installedfrost tubes in two holes to a depth of 2.5 and 2.0 m forCALM at sites of the Terkh and Chuluut valleys in theKhangai mountain region. Besides, at the Argalant site ofthe Khentei mountain region, he drilled a borehole to adepth of 12 m and equipped it with a thermistor cableand a frost tube. At present, there are 10 active boreholesfor CALM and GTNet-P in Mongolia. These are:Baganuur (15 m and 21 m deep), Nalaikh (5 m and 50 mdeep), and Argalant (12 m deep) all in the Khentei moun-tain region, Burenkhan (50 m deep) and Ardag (15 m and25 m deep) in the Khubsugul mountain region, andTerkh and Chuluut surface boreholes in the Khangaimountain region. Next year it is planned to install soiltemperature dataloggers in some of the boreholes forCALM.

In November 1998 a joint Japanese - Mongolian groupheaded by Masami Fukuda, conducted a permafrost sur-vey in the Khatagal (near Khubsugul lake) and Nalaikh

(near Ulaanbaator) areas for three weeks. During the sur-vey, three boreholes were drilled to a depth of 5-8 m andgeoelectrical soundings were carried out.

Data were collected on the Busnuur pingo near TheNalaikh area. This year a new group headed by FujioTsuchiya worked on a joint research programmeme onthe study of permafrost degradation under influence ofMongolian forest fire. This programmeme lasts from1999 to 2002. The main objective is to monitor the thermalgradient shift in permafrost after fire occurrence and thetemperature gradient change near heat pipes as a coun-ter measure of degradation, as well as to investigatethe ecological impacts of forest fire and processes ofregeneration. This summer permafrost surveys wereconducted in the areas with forest fires of the Khenteimountain, Mongolia, for two weeks. During the surveyheat pipes were installed in two surface boreholes (about2 m deep) one with and one without permafrost.

Financial support from the IPA enabled N.Sharkhuu tovisit the Kazakstan high mountain permafrost labora-tory in Almaty for two weeks in June 1999. Basedon analyses of permafrost research materials fromMongolia and Kazakstan and financial possibilities,geocryologists from both countries discussed andconstituted a programmeme of joint Mongolian andKazakstan permafrost studies in the period 1999-2001.They will start to develop a joint programme for map-ping and monitoring permafrost as part of CALM, andGTNet-P and the IPA Task Force of Mapping and Distri-bution Modelling of Mountain Permafrost. For perma-frost modelling and mapping, the Burenkhan phospho-rite area, Mongolia and the Big Almaty area, Kazakstanwere selected as permafrost conditions that have beenstudied and mapped previously.

N.Sharkhuu (geoeco@magicnet.mn)

NetherlandsThe Vrije Universit eit, Faculty of Earth Sciences, partici-pates in the EC-funded TUNDRA-project and is study-ing fluvial processes in the Russian arctic Usa basin. Inthe summers of 1998 and 1999 fieldwork was conducted,and morphological and sedimentological data were col-lected, from field sites across the catchment, from thetaiga to the treeless tundra, from the Ural Mountains tothe tundra-lowlands. In each of these sites present andpast fluvial processes of erosion, deposition and rework-ing were reconstructed by means of morphological map-ping and sedimentological analysis. Extrapolation ofthese data into a larger area will be done by using satel-lite images, topographical maps and maps such as soilmaps, vegetation maps and permafrost maps that will beprovided by other members of the TUNDRA-project. Formore information, contact huim@geo.vu.nl.

This research is carried out in close cooperationwith the Utrecht University, Department of Physi-cal Geography, which studies the hydrological charac-

18 Frozen Ground

teristics of the Usa River. A model is under construction,using data collected during the field work, which willdescribe present discharges and future changes in thehydrological regime under climate changes. The modeluses monthly temperature and precipitation values anddata from other partners in the TUNDRA-project, suchas vegetation cover, topography and permafrost condi-tions. More information from s.vanderlinden@geog.uu.nl.

In a study of Tertiary Sirius Group diamictites from dif-ferent localities in South Victoria Land, Antarctic, atten-tion is paid to periglacial overprinting of the glacialstructure of the sediments. This is done by checking thinsections for well-known periglacial microstructures.

During studies of glacial sediments emerging from un-derneath the glacier Sléttjökull, Iceland, it was foundthat permafrost exists underneath the snout. Sedimentsremain frozen for up to four years and so should be clas-sified as permafrost. Freezing is caused by heat loss inwinter from the thin glacier snout. Studies are being con-ducted together with J. Krüger, Institute of Geography,University of Copenhagen. More information on thesetwo last projects from : J. van der Meer (j.j.m.meer@frw.uva.nl)

Jef Vandenberghe (vanj@geo.vu.nl)

NorwayDepartment of Physical Geography, University of Oslo(http://www.geografi.uio.no/) continues its activi-ties within the EU-PACE project. The first deepPACE borehole (102 m) was drilled in May 1998 atJanssonhaugen (78°12' N, 16°28' E at 250 m asl.)on Svalbard. The first year of data collection fromJanssonhaugen shows seasonally temperature varia-tions down to a depth of 18.0 m, equivalent to the depthof zero annual amplitude. The depth of the active layer inthe first summer was 1.55 m, with a maximum depth on 4September. At both 0.2 m and 0.8 m there are high-fre-quency variations throughout the entire year. Below thepermafrost table, high-frequency temperature varia-tions diminish rapidly, as revealed from theory, andclosely follow a sinusoidal curve at 5.0 m depth. The per-mafrost thickness is estimated to be approximately 220m. Analyses reveals an increasing temperature gradientwith depth. Using a heat conduction inversion model apalaeoclimatic reconstruction shows a warming of thesurface temperature over the last 60-80 years. The tem-perature profile represents a regional signal on Svalbard,which shows an inflection associated with near surfacewarming of 1 ° to 2 °C in the last century.

In August 1999 a 129 m deep PACE borehole was dril-led on Juvvasshøe (61°41' N, 8°22' E at 1894 m asl.),Jotunheimen, in southern Norway. The preliminary re-sults indicate 250 to 300 m deep mountain permafrost,and a very low upper geothermal gradient, which proba-bly reflects a pronounced surface warming in the lastpart of this century. The Norwegian Meterological Insti-

tute will install a complete meterological station close tothe drill site. Juvvasshøe has a relatively gentle slopefrom 1700 down to 1300 m asl., where geophysical inves-tigations such as 2D-resistivity soundings, seismic andelectromagnetic measurements (EM31) were carried outalong a 600 m long profile. This was done together withETH/Zürich and Terradat/Cardiff. The result is a de-tailed picture of the transition from continuous to patchypermafrost situated about 1450 m asl., with an increasingactive layer thickness.

In connection with the PACE project, mapping ofmountain permafrost has been intensified usinggeophysical methods, and by establishing spatialmodels of permafrost distribution by means of GIS. Fieldefforts were concentrated on the mountain areas ofJotunheimen and Dovrefjell, where several hundredBTS-measurements have been carried out. Based on atopographical, spatial-distributed radiation model(SRAD), the radiation balance was calculated in both ar-eas. This showed nearly identical relationshipsbetween altitude, potential radiation and BTS tempera-tures. The BTS temperatures are mainly controlled by al-titude, whereas topographic effects, such as slopes as-pect seem to be of minor importance, chiefly due to themaritime macroclimatic conditions.

A small-scale map of permafrost distribution insouthern Norway has recently been established, basedon temperature data provided by the Norwegian Mete-orological Institute and a spatial regression model. In theareas of Dovrefjell and Jotunheimen empirical spatialmodels of large-scale permafrost distribution were es-tablished using GIS. Relationships between relief, radia-tion and partly snow were applied. These data will be in-corporated into the PACE documentation.

Studies of periglacial processes are undertaken atFinse in southern Norway, where GIS methods havebeen used to analyse the relationship between the distri-bution of periglacial landforms and topograhical pa-rameters. For a number of years, slow slope movements(i.e. ploughing boulders, solifluction lobes and debris ingeneral) were monitored using standard surveying tech-niques. Recently, DGPS has been employed for this pur-

Drilling the borehole at Janssonhangen, Svalbard 1998

19Frozen Ground

pose, and a test of DGPS for continuous measurement ofslope deformation has been performed. In the autumn1998, a joint project with PACE, between University ofWales (Charles Harris), University of Dundee (MichaelDavis) and the University of Oslo (Johan Ludvig Sollid)was started at Finse. The equipment used in the labora-tory experiments on solifluction processes, performedby Harris and his co-workers, was installed at one of theFinse sites (Jomfrunut).

The Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, NGI(http: //www.ngi.no/) has recently started a fiveyear research programme “Permafrost response to envi-ronmental and industrial loads”. The objective is to in-vestigate how permafrost responds to different loadssuch as terrestrial pollution and industrial activity, andto establish reliable, effective and environmentally safesolutions for construction on permafrost and clean-upoperations at contaminated sites. Existing numericalmodels will be used in the investigations to predict andestimate permafrost response and optimise the fieldand laboratory testing programme.

There will be a joint field and laboratory program-me that aims at developing new methods for field inves-tigations and, together with numerical analyses, givesinput to the response analysis and model development.NGI’s permafrost research station at Sveagruva, Spits-bergen (77º54’N, 16º41’E) will be used for the field inves-tigations. In addition, NGI’s existing field installations inLongyearbyen and several contaminated sites onSpitsbergen will be utilised. The Research Council ofNorway finances the programme. For more informa-tion, see http://www.ngi.no/SIP/SIP7.htm, or contactthe programme coordinator Arne Instanes (ai@ngi.no orarne.instanes@unis.no).

Johan Ludvig Sollid (J.L.Sollid@geografi.uio.no)Kaare Flaate (kflaate@online.no)

RussiaThe following report presents highlights of some currentpermafrost studies in Russia. The Federal researchsubprogramme ‘Global Changes in Natural Environ-ment and Climate’ unites geocryologists from differentregions of Russia. Participating researchers come frominstitutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), e.g.Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics of RAS, Insti-tute of Geography of RAS; its Siberian Division (SDRAS), e.g. Institute of Atmospheric Optics of SD RAS,Institute of Earth Cryosphere of SD RAS; North-EasternCentre of the Pacific Division of RAS; as well as fromMoscow Lomonosov State University, St. PetersburgState University and other leading academic institutionsof Russia. Also, very popular in Russia still is the multi-year subprogramme ‘Comprehensive Studies of Oceansand Seas, Arctic and Antarctic’. It is implemented by theAll-Russian Research Institute of Oceanology, UnitedInstitute of Permafrost and Use of Natural Resources of

the Cryolithozone of SD RAS, Institute of EarthCryosphere, Polar Geophysical Institute of the Kola Re-search Centre of RAS, North-Eastern Research Centre ofthe Pacific Division of RAS, Moscow Lomonosov StateUniversity, as well as the Arctic Murmansk Engineering-Geological Expedition and other large-production or-ganizations. Working over the lines of the above pro-grammes, the Institute of Global Climate revealed ‘Ech-oes of land climate of some Russian regions’ to the warmstream El-Nino events that occur in the Pacific. The Insti-tute of Computational Mathematics of RAS has devel-oped a theory of the sensitivity of global atmospheric cir-culation to low-power permanent perturbations. Stud-ies carried out at the Geography Faculty of Moscow StateUniversity and presented in the 1999 doctoral disserta-tion of K.S. Voskresensky entitled ‘Modern Relief-Form-ing Processes on Plains of Russian North’ have demon-strated the critical role in the relief-forming processesplayed by intrasecular changes in the temperature re-gime and the level of precipitation during the warm an-nual season. It has also been elucidated that cryogenicprocesses are characterized by cyclic development,whereas their energy is determined by the potential en-ergy of the relief and a portion of the descending heatflux.

Field studies were performed in the Yugorsk Peninsulawhich yielded comprehensive (cryolithologic, chemicaland isotopic) characteristics of massive ground ice.These field and laboratory studies were performed incollaboration with geologists from Göteborg University,Sweden, Institute of Earth Cryosphere of SD RAS, All-Russian Research Institute of Oceanic Geology, ShirshovInstitute of Oceanology of RAS, and the Institute ofMicrobiology of RAS.

The reliability of identifying regions of perenniallyfrozen deposits by electric and elastic properties of fro-zen deposits and ice (particularly ground ice) using tech-nique reported in Frolov’s monograph ‘Electric and Elas-tic Properties of Frozen Deposits and Ice’ (1999), as wellas in Doctoral dissertations of I.A. Komarov, R.I.Gavriliev, and others, is being studied.

Field studies in the Laptev Sea basin support con-clusions drawn by N. Romanovskii and H. Hubbertenon the significance of paleo-reconstructions of in-teractions in the climate-land-sea system. In this contextradically new geocryological modelling of the dyna–mics of the shelf and off-shore permafrost indicate fourclimatic and glacio-eustatic cycles (~ 420 000 years). Thisis based on the isotopic temperature curve derived fromice cores from the Vostok station in the Antarctic kindlyprovided by V.M. Kotlyakov.

Also of interest is geocryological modelling of the dy-namics of the shelf and off-shore cryolithozone, its inter-action with the zone of stability of gas hydrates and gasfields, and modelling of cryogenic phenomena. Theabove-mentioned studies are carried out by the joint ef-fort of Russian scientists from Moscow State University,

20 Frozen Ground

P.I. Melnikov Permafrost Institute, St. Petersburg StateUniversity of Communications and German scientists:H. Hubberten, K. Siegert, V. Rachold, L. Schirmeister andothers from the Potsdam Division of the Alfred WegenerInstitute for Marine and Polar Studies. The annual meet-ing of geocryologists was held in Pushchino 20-23 April1999, and for the first time the programme was sharedwith glaciologists. The theme of the international confer-ence was “ Monitoring of the Cryosphere” and consistedof a series of plenary, paper and poster sessions and sev-eral panel and round table discussions. The annual meet-ing of the Consolidated Scientific Council for EarthCryology, presided over by Vladimir P. Melnikov, washeld on the last day of the conference, and included a dis-cussion of plans for the next conference in May 2000 onthe theme “Rythyms of natural processes in the EarthCryosphere”.

New geocryological data are presented in more detailin the Russian-language journal “Kriosphera Zemli”(The Earth Cryosphere), and national and foreign spe-cialists are invited to subscribe to it.

The English version of the 16-sheet GeocryologicalMap of Russia and Neighbouring Republics has recentlybeen published. The English version of this very detailedmap, important to industrial and government users aswell as to permafrost scientists, is a project of Cam-bridge, Moscow State and Carleton Universities. Fulldetails with map examples are given on the http://www.freezingground.org/map or may be obtained bywriting to Collaborative Map Project c/o GeotechnicalScience Laboratories, Carleton University, Ottawa, K1S5B6, Canada.

V.P. Melnikov(an@ikz.tmn.ru)

Southern AfricaMost activities of the members the Southern African Per-mafrost Group have been concentrated on the prepara-tions associated with the INQUA Congress, Durban,from 3-15 August 1999, as reported elsewhere in this is-sue.

Ongoing research on Marion Island in the maritimesub-Antarctic by the Universities of the Western Capeand Pretoria focus on: (a) Ground climate monitoring inorder to examine environmental controls on frost acti-vity, (b) Experimental determination of sediment move-ment rates in response to soil frost activity, with particu-lar emphasis on needle ice as a geomorphic agent, (c)Quantitative survey work on active and relict perigla-cial landforms, concentrating on active patternedground, (d ) Geomorphological mapping of glacial andperiglacial landforms.

In addition Paul Sumner, with the assistance of WernerNel, is working on rates of weathering and debris pro-duction on Marion Island.

Jan Boelhouwers (janboel@uwc.ac.za)

SpainForty-five experts from Spain and Portugal attended thefourth meeting of IPA-Spain, organised by the Institutode Estudios Turolenses and the University of Zaragoza,15-17 July, 1999, in Albarracín. The objective of the meet-ing was to discuss the characteristics of the cold-climatelandforms and processes in the Mediterranean and sub-Atlantic environments of the Iberian Peninsula.

Lorenz King (University of Giessen, Germany) gave akeynote address on mountain permafrost in Europe, andFrancesco Dramis (University of Roma) gave the closingspeech on periglaciation of the mountains of Italy. OnJuly 16, a field trip to Sierra de Albarracín examinedcold-climate landforms in Paleozoic quartzite moun-tains and Mesozoic calcareous ravines of the IberianRange.

The fifth meeting of IPA-Spain will take place in 2001,in Santander.

An active rock glacier has been discovered in theSierra Nevada Mountains in southern Spain, as part ofthe EU-PACE project fieldwork. It is situated in Corraldel Veleta (3100 m asl.), a cirque at the NE face of the Ve-leta Peak (3394 m). A shallow borehole was drilled in therock glacier by members of the Spanish PACE group.

Participants at the Pushchino conference, April 1999

21Frozen Ground

Pure ice appeared at 1.9 m depth. As the Veleta Peakis located at 37ºN, this active rock glacier is thesouthernmost in Europe. The Spanish PACE group willcarry out intensive research at this rock glacier in the nextyears to determinate its origin, the climatic implicationsand the permafrost distribution in the area.

José Luis Peña Monné (jlpena@posta.unizar.es),Antonio Gómez, Miguel Ramos, and

David Palacios (davidp@eucmax.sim.ucm.es)

SwedenElse Kolstrup Physical Geography, Department of EarthSciences, University of Uppsala, continues research onboundary constraints of geomorphological forms andprocesses in past and present periglacial environments.Faculty and NFR-funded projects involve a thesis studyby Bo Westin on constraints of thermal contractioncracking and another by Frieda Zuidhoff on boundaryconstraints of palsas in Lappland. Dynamics of, and dat-ing methods applicable to, Danish Weichseliancoversand (aeolian) deposits are being investigated incooperation with Göran Possnert (Uppsala) and AndrewMurray (Risö, Denmark). Also casts from thermal con-traction cracks in Denmark are the subject of investiga-tion.

Philip Wookey, Else Kolstrup and Göran Possnert con-tinue the NFR-funded project ‘Climate Change, Soil Or-ganic Matter Lability and Decomposer Metabolism inHigh Latitude Soils in Northern Iceland’. Wookey isplaying a strong role within the EU project Dynamic Re-sponse of the Forest-Tundra Ecotone to EnvironmentalChange (DART), and is chairman of the InternationalTundra Experiment (ITEX).

Late December 1998 Prof. em Anders Rapp died andSwedish periglacial research has thereby lost a highlymerited representative.

Else Kolstrup (Else.Kolstrup@natgeog.uu.se)

Switzerland In the last year, the main issue of the Glaciological Com-mission of the Swiss Academy of Sciences (SAS) has beenpermafrost, in particular the concept of the PermafrostMonitoring Switzerland (PERMOS). It was agreed thatthe main part will comprise thermal monitoring in anumber of shallow, 20 m deep boreholes. Various exist-ing sites form the base, which will be enlarged continu-ously. In January 1999, a meeting held in Interlaken wasdedicated to permafrost with presentations by CharlesHarris (Permafrost and Climate in Europe - PACE),Markus Imhof (Permafrost in the Schilthorn region),Hansruedi Keusen (Geotechnical approaches for build-ings in permafrost) and Daniel Vonder Mühll (Perma-frost Monitoring Switzerland - PERMOS).

The International Glaciological Society (IGS) held ameeting in August 1999 in Zürich. Five talks were givenin the permafrost session and several permafrost pos-

ters were presented. A field trip led by Wilfried Haeberliand Marcia Phillips took the participants to the SwissFederal Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research(SFISAR, Davos) and various research sites in the UpperEngadin.

The results of the project ‘Ice melt in high mountainareas ’ (Project W. Haeberli) within the National Re-search Program me (NRP) 31 on ‘Climate Change andNatural W. Hazards’, was published in spring 1999.

Within the Hydrological Atlas of Switzerland(HADES), the permafrost part was published in August1999. It contains a Swiss map showing the permafrostdistribution according to three different models, the lo-cation of over one hundred rock glaciers, three casestudies (Murtèl-Corvatsch, Furggentälti and Val Réchy)and a comment in German, French, Italian and English.Meanwhile, projects performed through several insti-tutes are going on:

The Institutes of Geography at Fribourg (IGUF, MichelMonbaron, Jean-Michel Gardaz, Reynard Delaloye) andLausanne (IGUL, Emmanual Reynard) are conductingresearch on the thermal evolution of permanently frozenground at very low elevations (Creux du Van, JuraRange, 1200m asl.) and at the lower limit of the discon-

Borehole drilling operation in the Swiss Alps.

22 Frozen Ground

tinuous permafrost belt in the western Penninic Alps(Alpage de Mille, 2300m asl.; Mont-Gele/Lapires,2500m asl.). A comparative study site of IGUL is situatedin the more oceanic Diablerets region (2400m asl). Vari-ous methods such as direct current (DC) resistivitysoundings and mapping, BTS measurements, and con-tinuous temperature measurements at the ground sur-face are being used. In the Lapires talus slope, a 20 mborehole was drilled in autumn 1998.

The research project ‘Snow-supporting structures inpermafrost terrain’ has been running for three years atthe SFISAR, Davos (Patrik Thalparpan, Marcia Phillips).The influence of snow-supporting structures on groundtemperature evolution, and the technical aspects of theconstruction of the structures in high alpine permafrostterrain are being investigated. Field measurements in-clude the monitoring of borehole temperatures, snowdistribution, temperatures of experimental snow-sup-porting structures, and slope stability. Results obtainedfrom measurements and computer simulations indicatethat heat is not conducted into or out of the groundthrough the steel components of the supporting struc-tures. Ground temperature is, however, reduced slightlyon a very local scale through artificial modification ofsnow cover distribution. Temperature measurementswill be continued to verify these results over a longer pe-riod. Several types of structures and foundations havebeen tested for their suitability in steep, potentially un-stable terrain. In addition, anchor pull-out tests wereconducted and different types of grout and injectiontechniques were investigated in the field and in the labo-ratory. Guidelines for the construction of snow-support-ing structures in permafrost have been established.

At the Department of Geography, University of Zürich(Wilfried Haeberli, Andi Kääb, Martin Hoelzle),various ongoing projects relate to creeping mountainpermafrost. They combine photogrammetry, geodesy,geophysics, geomorphology and distribution model-ling.

One project aims at developing remote sensing tech-niques for early recognition of glacial and periglacialhazards based on satellite imagery, aerial photographyand digital terrain models.

On Muragl rock glacier, four 70m deep boreholes some30m apart, were drilled within the ETH-Mini-Polyproject of the three institutes of Geotechnics (SarahSpringman, Lukas Arenson), Geophysics (HansruediMaurer, Martin Musil) and VAW (Daniel Vonder Mühll).Sophisticated geophysical surveys included both sur-face as well as borehole-to-borehole investigations(seismics and radar). Some cores were saved and are be-ing analysed. Borehole logging, vertical and horizontaldeformation and temperatures provide the base to as-sess the geotechnical characteristics, and for long-termmonitoring of the rock glacier.

As the PACE project is fully operative now, the mainfieldwork at all field sites took place this year. The twoSwiss partners (University of Zürich: Wilfried Haeberli,

Martin Hoelzle, Catherine Mittaz; VAW-ETH Zürich:Daniel Vonder Mühll, Christian Hauck) intensified theirinvestigation at the Schilthorn site: geophysical surveys,a 14 m deep borehole to measure temperatures and a cli-mate station to determine the energy balance are a firststep to the deep drilling, which will be done in 2000.

VAW-ETH Zurich organised and participated in thegeophysical fieldwork in Sierra Nevada (Spain),Svalbard, Tarfala (Sweden), Valtellina (Italy), Jotun-heimen (Norway) and at various sites in the Swiss Alps.A whole range of different methods were used, such asrefraction seismics, DC resistivity tomography and vari-ous electromagnetic methods in order to evaluate sui-ta-ble techniques for the mapping of permafrost. First re-sults were presented at the PACE meeting in Giessen,Germany in October 1999.

Possible new establishment of permafrost in glacierforefields is investigated at the Muragl glacier by theUniversity of Trier, Germany (Christoph Kneisel), and inseveral glacier forefields in the Valais area by the Univer-sity of Fribourg (Reynald Delaloye).

Three PhD theses were successfully completed duringthe last year: Markus Imhof (University of Berne) inves-tigated the relationship between permafrost and snowespecially in the Bernese Alps, including the Schilthornarea. Emmanuel Reynard (University of Lausanne) per-formed geomorphological and hydrological studies inthe Montana area (Valais). Jean-Michel Gardaz (Univer-sity of Fribourg) wrote his thesis about hydrology in per-mafrost.

Daniel Vonder Mühll(vondermuehll@vaw.baum.ethz.ch)

United KingdomA project under the direction of Julian Murton (Uni-versity of Sussex), with funding from The LeverhulmeTrust and the Geological Society, is investigating ‘Theorigin of deformed massive ice, Pleistocene MackenzieDelta, Western Canadian Arctic’.

A second project, organised by Julian Murton andfunded by the UK Natural Environmental ResearchCouncil, brings together expertise on ground ice, rockweathering and cryogenic experiments from the Univer-sity of Sussex and the Centre de Géomorphologie, Caen,France to develop ‘A pilot experiment on rock weather-ing in permafrost’. A new methodology for simulatingthe ground thermal regime of the active layer and theupperpart of permafrost (two-sided freezing) has beensuccessfully developed and is being applied to a largeblock of chalk. Results to date indicate that frost heaveoccurs during both freeze and thaw cycles, and that icesegregation is causing rock cracking to take place at thebase of the simulated active layer.

As part of the research project “Assessment of renew-able ground and surface water resources and the impactof economic activity in The Ili River Basin, Republic OfKazakstan” funded by the INCO-COPERNICUS Fund

23Frozen Ground

of the European Commission , Stephan Harrison (Centrefor Quaternary Science, Coventry University) and DavidPassmore (Department of Geography, University ofNewcastle-upon-Tyne) are investigating thegeomorphological evolution of upland valleys in theTian Shan mountains. Long-term monitoring of environ-mental systems in the Zailiisky Alatau mountains of thenorthern Tian Shan offers an unusually detailed recordof late 19th and 20th century glacier fluctuations, rockglacier fluctuations, climate records and frequency ofavalanche activity over the past 40 years. Research aimsinclude (a) to establish temporal and spatial linkages be-tween twentieth century climatic changes, glacier androck glacier response and patterns of valley side and val-ley floor instability, and (b) to develop a model of climatechange and associated geomorphic responses that maybe integrated within environmental and economic man-agement frameworks.

Scaled centrifuge modelling of thaw-related slopeprocesses by Charles Harris and Brice Rea (Cardiff Uni-versity) has made significant progress through 1999 (seePACE report, this issue), and a new three-year projectentitled “Scaled centrifuge modelling of periglacialmass movement processes” commenced in October1999. Funded by the UK Natural Environment ResearchCouncil, this project will study gelifluction processesand the transition to rapid mudflow/active layer de-tachment sliding, with particular emphasis on the role ofcon-stitutive soil properties. A second project, involvingAnglo-Norwegian collaboration and funded by the Bri-tish Council and the Norwegian Research Council hasbeen initiated to monitor processes of gelifluction at afield site in Finse, Southern Norway. The research teamincludes Johan Ludvig Sollid and Ivar Berthling (Uni-versity of Oslo), Charles Harris (University of Cardiff)and Michael Davies (University of Dundee). This moni-toring is designed to provide field validation of thescaled centrifuge modelling programme.

Charles Harris (harrisc@cardiff.ac.uk)

United States of AmericaFROSTFIRE, a wildfire research project in the boreal fo-rest near Fairbanks, Alaska, was ignited in CaribouPoker Creeks Research Watershed (CPCRW) in July1999. The Bureau of Land Management, Alaska FireService, at the request of the University of AlaskaFairbanks conducted the 900-acre controlled burn.

Research groups from the U.S., Canada, and Japan arestudying fire behaviour and effects on climate and borealecosystems. The fire burned about 90 percent of the blackspruce in the 2,000-acre research area as it raced throughstands of black spruce and feather moss, but movedmore slowly and with less intensity in hardwoods andsphagnum moss. Background data on pre-fire condi-tions were collected over the last two years and now nu-merous investigations will focus upon fire impacts, per-mafrost degradation and vegetation recovery. A second

programme in CPCRW, the YuWEx (Yukon Water andEnergy Experiment) project, is a collaborative researchactivity among several Japanese and U.S. scientists.Studies of interactive processes associated with hydro-logic and climatic dynamics in the discontinuous perma-frost area of the Yukon River uplands are underway toimprove our understanding of land surface processesand potential impacts of climatic change in a region ofdiscontinuous permafrost.

Permafrost research continues as part of the ATLASprogramme (Arctic Transitions in the Land/Atmos-phere System), a research programme sponsored by theNational Science Foundation’s ARCSS (Arctic SystemScience) programme. The goals of the research are to de-velop a more complete understanding of the responsesof arctic ecosystems to a changing climate, to determinethe geographical patterns and controls over climate-landsurface exchanges (mass and energy), and to developscenarios of future change in the Arctic system. This five-year programme includes numerous investigations ofactive layer dynamics and permafrost response to cli-matic change. The Circumpolar Active Layer Monitor-ing (CALM) network is part of ATLAS.

A second NSF programme ‘Russian -American Initia-tive on Shelf-Land Environments in the Arctic (RAISE)’sponsored a 3-day workshop on Arctic Coastal Dynam-ics. Rates of erosion of ice-rich, land-based permafrost,the dynamics of subsea permafrost, and sedimentaryprocesses along the coastlines were reviewed and avail-able information synthesised.

In the Antarctic, a joint US-Russian team cored perma-frost in Beacon Valley to study sand/ice wedge poly-gons, their initiation and growth, and their effect on landsurface stability. This University of Washington led teamrecovered a 20-m core that may contain the earth’s oldestpreserved ice. Observations include physical, chemicaland microbial characteristics of the core along withborehole ground temperatures. A NASA collaborator ismodelling ground-ice dynamics as the Beacon Valley isconsidered to be one of the best terrestrial analogs for thestudy of Martian soils.

Gary Clow reports that the U.S. Geological Surveycontinues its borehole measurements in Greenland, Ant-arctic, and Alaska. The primary goals of the SurveyBorehole Paleothermometry Programme are to recon-struct surface temperatures in the polar regions for thelast 40 ka and to improve our understanding of the ther-mal conditions within the permafrost that underlies thepolar ice sheets.

The ASCE Technical Council on Cold Regions(TCCRE) held its 10th International Conference on ColdRegions in Lincoln, New Hampshire, August 16-19,1999. The conference, entitled Putting Research intoPractice, was represented by Canada, Japan, Norway,Russia, Sweden, and the United States. Eighty-six paperswere presented in 26 sessions. The technical and admin-istrative committees of TCCRE met. Bucky Tart reported

24 Frozen Ground

on the Yellowknife conference and announced the forth-coming International Workshop on Permafrost Engi-neering in Svalbard and the permafrost conference inSwitzerland. TCCRE expressed interest in developingengineering sessions for the 2003 conference. Ted Vinsonreported on the ISCORD conference held in Tasmania.Bill Lovell, Jr., former U.S. representative to IPA, was pre-sented the Hal Peyton Award, the prestigious ASCE coldregions engineering award.

Steve Grant and Giles Marion, CRREL, and RonSletten, University of Washington, organised a specialsession on unfrozen water for the American GeophysicalUnion Fall meeting in San Francisco, December 1999.The Cryosphere Specialty Group of the Association ofAmerican Geographers sponsored several sessions atthe AAG annual meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, in April1999.

As noted elsewhere, the Troy Péwé Climatic ChangePermafrost Reserve, located in Fairbanks, Alaska, wasdedicated on September 18, 1999. Jerry Brown (jerrybrown@igc.org) and Larry Hinzman

(ffldh@ aurora.alaska.edu)

Other NewsNew ZealandMembers of the New Zealand group are currently under-taking a number of research projects in the Ross Sea sec-tor of Antarctica. There is little active periglacial/perma-frost research currently being undertaken in New Zea-land itself although a number of relevant projects haverecently been completed.

In Antarctica Warren Dickinson (Victoria University ofWellington) has an ongoing programme of drilling per-mafrost in the Dry Valleys area using ground ice to im-prove our understanding of paleoclimate and landscapehistory. Ground ice in the Sirius group tillite has beensampled from cores up to 9.5 m deep at Table Mtn. Stableisotopic data suggests that the ground ice accumulatedfrom a combination of: (1) moisture diffusion from thesurface and (2) brine seeping downward from the sur-face along thin films. Further research will involve vali-dation of this model using ground ice from cores takenacross a transect on surfaces of differing ages and eleva-tions. Temperature probes will be deployed into the coreholes to determine the stability of the ground ice and willrecord temperatures and relative humidity through thewinter.

Peter Sheppard (IGNS), Megan Balks (University ofWaikato), Jack Alasbie (Landcare) and Ron Paetzold(USDA) are continuing work on the effects of hydro- car-bon spills on Antarctic soil ecosystems. It has been dem-onstrated that the right organisms are present to degradefuel and oil spills in Antarctic soils, but they achieve it ata much lower rate than observed elsewhere. The reasons

for this contrast are being examined as is how these prop-erties affect the functioning of the ecosystem. The mainobjective of the 1999/2000 season is to undertake main-tenance and download data from a number of climatemonitoring sites and to install temperature and moisturemonitoring equipment at sites with oil contamination.Preliminary work will be undertaken to install equip-ment for a controlled spillage trial that is to be under-taken during the 2000/2001 summer.

Iain Campbell, Doug Sheppard, Megan Balks are in-volved with John Kimble and Ron Paetzold (USDA) in aproject involving active layer/permafrost investigationat two locations in the McMurdo Sound region. Tem-perature probes have been inserted as well as humidityand moisture recorders in the active layer and non-ice ce-mented permafrost. At the coastal sites, ice-cementedpermafrost was present at 35 and 65 cm respectively,whilst the inland Dry Valley site provided a contrastwith no ice-cement present and dry permafrost presentbelow 40 cm. It is intended that they will become perma-nent permafrost monitoring sites and that the range ofsites can be extended.

Peter Sheppard is also involved in a project with IainCampbell, Graeme Claridge and Ian Graham (IGNS) inwhich the sources of salts in ancient Antarctic Dry Valleysoils and their stored climatic record are being investi-gated. Understanding of the sources of the salts, how todifferentiate these sources, and the controls on intra-soilprocesses is needed if the climatic history is to be eluci-dated.

Paul Augustinus, Matt Watson, Scott Nichol (Univer-sity of Auckland) and Ed Butler (Victoria University ofWellington) undertook ground penetrating radar sur-veys of raised beaches in the McMurdo Sound region.The subsurface imaging clearly displayed the subsur-face stratigraphy and depth to bedrock at many sites, aswell as indicating the depth to the active layer and dis-crimination between dry and ice permafrost. This workis being extended to other raised beaches along the RossSea coast over the 1999/2000 summer season.

In New Zealand, Alan Mark (University of Otago) iscollaborating with Peter Kershaw (University of Al-berta) on vegetation- environmental relationships in thealpine zone of Rock and Pillar Range, Central Otago,N.Z.

There will be a conference of the Australia-New Zea-land Geomorphology Group, in Wanaka, in the centralSouth Island of New Zealand, and at the foothills of theSouthern Alps and close to some of New Zealand’s bestperiglacial landscapes. Details of the conference havenot yet been announced, but it is to follow the conferenceof the New Zealand Soil Science Society and is to runfrom Dec 6 to 10, 2000. Professor Michael Crozier, Schoolof Earth Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington is theorganiser and contact person for details of the meeting:michael.crozier@vuw.ac.nz.

Paul Augustinus (p_augustinus@hotmail.com)

25Frozen Ground

PortugalDuring 1999 Portuguese periglacial researchers conti-nued studies mentioned in previous reports.

Maria Luísa Rodrigues presented a PhD thesis on theQuaternary deposits and present-day dynamics of theLimestone Massif of Estremadura. Among other issues,she analysed the significance of relict stratified slope de-posits.

At the IPA-Spain meeting in Albarracín, António deBrum Ferreira, Maria Luísa Rodrigues and GonçaloTeles Vieira presented a synthesis on the relict andpresent-day periglacial phenomena in Portugal.Gonçalo Teles Vieira participated in the IGU/IPAperiglacial symposium in Lodz, Poland.

A small group is being organised in order to apply inthe near future for membership in the IPA. The group in-cludes researchers from the Universities of Lisbon (4),Coimbra (2) and Oporto (1).

Gonçalo Teles Vieira (gtvieira@ceg.ul.pt)

RomaniaThe main focus of activity during the past year was themonitoring of permafrost and related periglacial forms(BTS and summer temperature measurements of springssituated at the base of rock glaciers, talus cones and blockfields) in the Fagaras, Retezat, Parang, Tarcu (Sout-hern Carpathians), and Detunata Goala (Apuseni)Mountains, by a team of the West University ofTimisoara, under the coordination of Petru Urdea.

For the next three years (1999-2001) the same teamwill work in the grant 15/63 ‘Study of the present-day morphodynamic processes in alpine zone of theSouthern Carpathians (Transsylvanian Alps) from theperspective of sustainable development of the mountainarea’, financed by the National Council of Scientific Re-search for Higher Education, of the National EducationMinistry.

Petru Urdea (urdea@cbg.uvt.ro)

The 12th Northern Research Basins Workshop andSymposium was convened in Reykjavík, Kirkjubæjar-klaustur and Höfn, Hornafjörður, Iceland Aug 23-27,1999. Representatives from the U.S., Canada, Norway,Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Greenland, Japan, Ger-many, Great Britain, and Iceland met to discuss hydro-logic problems and investigations currently on-going throughout the circumpolar North. Permafrosthydrology was a recurrent theme throughout the meet-ing. The papers presented at the meeting have been com-piled into a 400+ page proceedings that is availablethrough Jónas Elíasson (jonase@verk.hi.is)

26 Frozen Ground

200030th International Arctic Workshop, 16-18 March, Insti-tute of Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colo-rado, Boulder, Colorado, USA.http://instaar.colorado.edu/AW2000/

Scientific confercence on The Environmental Condi-tions and the Prospects of a Sustainable developmentof the Northern Pacific Area at the Turn of theMillenium, 21-24 March, Magadan, Russia. G.Perlshtein at email: svj@online.magadan.su

International Arctic Science Committee, Arctic Week,2-7 April, Cambridge, U.K, email: iasc@iasc.mo.

Ice and permafrost drilling in high mountains, sym-posium co-sponsored by the EU projects ALPCLIM andPACE, at the European Geophysical Society, XXV Gen-eral Assembly, Millennium Conference on Earth, Plan-etary and Solar System Sciences, Nice, France, 25-29April. Convenors: Wilfried Haeberli and DietmarWagenbach. The symposium aims to review presentlyavailable knowledge and overviews ongoing researchprojects.

http://www.copernicus.org/EGS/egsga/nice00/nice00.htm

International Conference on Rhythms of Natural Pro-cesses in the Earth Cryosphere, 12-15 May, Pushchino,Russia. Russian Academy of Sciences, Scientific Councilon the Earth Cryology, Moscow 117312, ul. Fersmana 11/2, kv. 68. Phone: 7-095-1324-5422, Fax: 7-095-135-6582,email: kriozem@glasnet.ru

The Tenth International Offshore and Polar Engine-ering Conference, ISOPE2000, Seattle, May 28- June 2.http://www.isope.org

International Workshop on Permafrost Engineering ,Longyearbyen, Svalbard, Norway, 18-21 June.

The workshop goals are to: Strengthen co-operationbetween the Nordic countries in the field of permafrostengineering, and to promote environmentally friendlysolutions to permafrost engineering problems. Furtherinformation : Professor K. Senneset, Department ofGeotechnical Engineering, NTNU, Høgskoleringen 7a,N-7491 Trondheim, Norway. Phone: 47 73 59 4602, Fax:47 73 59 4609, email: kaare.senneset@bygg.ntnu.no

The Second International Conference on Con-taminents in Freezing Ground, 2-5 July, Cambridge,U.K. http://www.freezingground.org/conf2000, orConference Secretariat, c/o Geotechnical Science Labo-ratories, Carleton University, Ottawa, K1S 5B6, Canada.

31st International Geological Congress, 6-17 AugustRio de Janerio, Brazil. Secretariat: Phone: 55 21 295 5847,Fax: 55 21 295 8094, email: 31igc@cristal.cprim. gov.br

International Workshop on debris-covered glaciers,13-15 September, Seattle, Washington, USA, sponsoredby the International Commission on Snow and Ice.

M. Nakawo, Institute for Hydrospheric-AtmosphericSciences, Nagoya University 464-8601 Japan. Fax: +81-52-789-3436, email: nakawo@ihas.nagoya-u.ac.jp

International Symposium on Ground Freezing (ISGF)and Frost Action in Soils, to be held in Brussels,11-13 September. J.-F. Thimus, UCL, Génie Civil-Batiment Vinci, Place du Levant I, 1348 Louvain laNeuve, Phone: +10-47-21-12, Fax: +10-47-21-79.

The Fourth International Symposium on PermafrostEngineering Lanzhou, China 21-23 September . Secre-tariat address: Prof. Zhu Yuanlin, Lanzhou Institute ofGlaciology and Geocryology, Chinese Academy of Sci-ences, Lanzhou, 730000, China. Phone: 86-931-8841490,Fax: 86-931-8885241, email: zhuyl@ns.lzb.ac.cn

British Periglacial Workshop, 6-7 September, Univer-sity of St Andrews, Scotland. Dr. Julian Murton, email:J.B.Murton@sussex.ac.uk and Prof. Colin Ballantyne,email: ckb@st-andrews.ac.uk

2001The First European Permafrost Conference, Rome,Italy, 26-30 March . For further information please seethe inserted 1st Announcement.

The Third International Conference on Cryopedology,Copenhagen, 20-24 August. For further informationplease see the inserted Pre-Registration Form.

Fifth International Association of GeomorphologyConference, 23-28 August, Tokyo, Japan, organised bythe Japanese Geomorphological Union (JGU). A five daypost conference field trip to the alpine landforms of theJapanese Alps with N. Matsuoka (email:matsuoka@atm.geo.tsukuba.ac.jp) and others are proposed.

Further information and registration at http://wwwsoc.nacsis.ac.jp/jgu/

2003VIII International Conference on Permafrost, 21-25July, Zürich, Switzerland. Contact: Prof. W. Haebrli:haeberli @geo.unizh.ch

Forthcoming Meetings

27Frozen Ground

PresidentProf. Hugh M. FrenchDepartments of Geography andEarth Sciences,University of OttawaP.O. Box. 450, Station AOttawa, Ontario K1N 6N5, CanadaTel: 1 613 562 5800 ext. 6282Fax: 1 613 562 5192hfrench@science.uottawa.ca

Vice PresidentDr. Felix E. ArePetersburg State University andMeans of CommunicationP.O. Box 210195220 St. Petersburg, RussiaTel: 7 812 168 8318Fax: 7 812 315 2621but@peterlink.ru

Prof. Wilfried HaeberliDepartment of GeographyUniversity of ZürichWinterhurerstrasse 190CH-8057 Zürich, SwitzerlandTel: 41 1 635 5120Fax: 41 1 635 6848haeberli@geo.unizh.ch

MembersDr. Jerry BrownP.O. Box 7Woods HoleMassachusetts 02543, USATel/Fax: 1 508 457 4982jerrybrown@igc.org

Prof. Truls MølmannBarlindhaug Consult ASN-9291 Tromsø, NorwayTel: 47 7762 26 33Fax: 47 7762 26 99truls.molmann@barlindhaug.no

Prof. Zhu YuanlinCAREERIChinese Academy of SciencesLanzhou, Gansu 730000, ChinaTel: 86 931 884 1490Fax: 86 931 888 5241zhuyl@ns.lzb.ac.cn

The IPA SecretariatDr. Hanne H. ChristiansenInstitute of GeographyUniversity of CopenhagenOester Voldgade 101350 Koebenhavn K, DenmarkTel: 45 35 32 25 00Fax: 45 35 32 25 01hhc@geogr.ku.dk

ArgentinaDr. Dario TrombottoGeocryologyIANIGLA-CRICYT-CONICETBajada del Cerro s/n CC 3305500 Mendoza, ArgentinaTel: 54 61 28 8808Fax: 54 61 28 7370dtrombot@lab.cricyt.edu.ar

AustriaDr. Gerhard K. LiebInstitute of GeographyUniverisity of GrazHeinrichstrasse 36A-8010 Graz, AustriaTel: 43 316 380 5146Fax: 43 316 380 9886gerhard.lieb@kfungiraz.ac.atkaufmann@fstgvs10.tu-graz.ac.at

BelgiumDr. Albert PissartDepartment of GeographyUniversity of LiegeB11 Sart Timan, 4000 Liege BelgiumTel: 32 41 66 5257Fax: 32 41 66 5722a.pissart@ulg.ac.be

CanadaProf. Michel AllardCentre d’etudes nordiquesUniversite LavalSainte-Foy, G1K 7P4Quebec, CanadaTel: 1 418 656 2131 ext. 5416Fax: 1 418 656 3960michel.allard@cen.ulaval.ca

ChinaDr. Jin HuijunCAREERIChinese Academy of SciencesLanzhou, Gansu 730000, ChinaTel: 86 931 8822815Fax: 86 931 8885241hjjin@ns.lzb.ac.cn

DenmarkMr. Sven BertelsenDanish Society for ArcticTechnologyNIRAS A/S, Sortemosevej 23450 Allerød, DenmarkTel: 45 48 14 0066Fax: 45 48 14 0033svb@niras.dk

FinlandProf. Matti SeppäläPhysical Geography LaboratoryUniversity of HelsinkiP.O. Box 9FIN- 00014 Helsinki, FinlandTel: 358 9 191 8674Fax: 358 9 191 8670matti.seppala@helsinki.fi

FranceMme. A. M. Cames-PintauxUMR 113 CNRS/LCPCLaboratorie des Materiaux et deStructures du Genie civil,2, Allee Kepler, Cite Descartes,77420 Champs sur Marne, France

GermanyProf. Lorenz KingGeographisches InstitutJustus-Liebig Universität35394 Giessen, GermanyTel: 49 641 99 36205Fax: 49 641 99 36219lorenz.king@geo.uni-giessen.de

ItalyDr. Francesco DramisDipartimento di Scienze GeologicheTerza UniversitaVia Osteinse 16900154 Rome, ItalyTel: 39 657 37 2877Fax: 39 657 54 88 8201dramis@uniroma3.it

JapanDr. Masami FukudaHokkaido UniversityN19W8 Sapporo 060, JapanFax: 81 11 706 7142mfukuda@pop.lowtem.hokudai.ac.jp

KazakstanProf. Aldar P. GorbunowInstitute of GeographyKazakstan Academy of Sciences99 Pushkin St.Almaty 480100, KazakstanTel: 7 3272 321363Fax: 7 3272 618102permafrost@astel.kz

MongoliaDr. D. TumurbaatarInstitute of Geography,Mongolian Acadamy of SciencesUlaanbaator 210620, MongoliaTel: 976 1 322739Fax: 976 1 326172geo-dgv@magicnet.mn

NetherlandsDr. Jef VandenbergheInstitute of Earth SciencesVrije UniversiteitDe Boelelaan 1085NL-1081 AmsterdamThe NetherlandsTel: 31 20 444 7368Fax: 31 20 646 2457vanj@geo.vu.nl

NorwayDr. Kaare FlaateBernhard Herresvei 6N-0376 Oslo, NorwayTel: 47 22 491 087kflaate@online.no

PolandDr. Kazimierz PekalaDepartment of GeomorphologyMaria-Curie Sklodowska UniversityAkademicka 1920 - 033 Lublin, PolandTel: 48 81 5 37 5915Fax: 48 81 5 37 5102geomorf@biotop.umcs.lublin.pl

RussiaDr. V. P. MelnikovConsolidated Scientific Council on EarthCryologyRussian Academy of SciencesEarth Cryosphere InstituteBox 1230625000 Tyumen, RussiaTel: 7 345 225 1153Fax: 7 345 222 3380an@ikz.tmn.ru

South AfricaDr. Jan BoelhouwersDepartment of Earth SciencesUniversity of the Western CapePrivate Bag X17Bellville 7535, South AfricaTel: 27 21 9592135Fax: 27 21 9592438janboel@uwc.ac.za

SpainDr. David E. PalaciosFacultad de Geografia FisicaUniversidad Complutense28040 Madrid, SpainTel: 34 1 394 5955Fax: 34 1 394 5963davidp@eucmax.sim.ucm.es

SwedenDr. Jonas ÅkermanDepartment of Physical GeographyUniversity of LundSölvegatan 13233 62 Lund, SwedenTel: 46 46 222 00 00Fax: 46 46 222 03 21Jonas.Akerman@natgeo.lu.se

SwitzerlandDr. Daniel Vonder MühllVAW/GlaciologyETH Federal Institute ofTechnologyGloriastrasse 37/39CH-8092 Zürich, SwitzerlandTel: 41 1 632 41 13Fax: 41 1 632 11 92vondermuehll@vaw.baum.ethz.ch

United KingdomDr. Charles HarrisDepartment of Earth SciencesUniversity of WalesP.O. Box 914Cardiff, CF1 3YE, United KingdomTel: 44 1222 87 4830Fax: 44 1222 87 4326HarrisC@cardiff.ac.uk

United States of AmericaDr. Bernard HalletQuaternary Research CenterUniversity of WashingtonBox 351360Seattle, Washington 98195-1360, USATel: 1 206 685 2409Fax: 1 206 543 3836hallet@u.washington.edu

Members / National ContactsExecutive Committee

IPA

December 1999International Permafrost Association Council

28 Frozen Ground

Standing Committe, Co-ChairsData, Information andCommunication

Dr. Roger Barry, DirectorWorld Data Center GlaciologyCampus Box 449University of ColoradoBoulderColorado 80309-0449, USATel: 1 303 492 5171Fax: 1 303 492 2468rbarry@kryos.colorado.edu

Dr. Mike Clark, DirectorGeoData InstituteUniversity of SouthamptonSouthampton SO17 1BJ, U.K.Tel: 44 1703 592719Fax: 44 1703 592849mjc@soton.ac.uk

Global Change and PermafrostDr. Oleg A. AnisimovDepartment of ClimatologyState Hydrological Institute2nd Line V.O.,23199053 St. Petersburg, RussiaTel: 7 812 213 8960Fax: 7 812 323 1028oleg@ans.usr.shi.spb.ru

Dr. Frederick E. NelsonDepartment of GeographyUniversity of DelawareNewark, Delaware 19716-2541 USATel: 1 302 831 2294Fax: 1 302 831 6654fnelson@udel.edu

Periglacial Processes andEnvironmentsProf. Ole HumlumPhysical GeographyUniversity Courses of SvalbardP.O. Box 1569171 Longyearbyen, NorwayTel: 47 79 02 33 00Fax: 47 79 02 33 01oleh@unis.no

Dr. Norikazu MatsuokaInstitute of GeoscienceUniversity of TsukubaTennodai 1-1-1Tsukuba, Ibaraki, 305-8571, JapanTel: 81 298 53 4540Fax: 81 298 51 9764matsuoka@atm.geo.tsukuba.ac.jp

Permafrost EngineeringProf. Lev N. KhroustalevDepartment of GeocryologyFaculty of GeologyMoscow State UniversityVorobyovy Gory119899 Moscow, RussiaFax: 7 095 939 01 26lev-khrus@mtu-net.ru

Dr. Branko LadanyiDept. de Genies CivilGeologie et des MinesEcole PolytechniqueCP 6079, succ. Centre-villeMontreal, PQ H3C 3A7, CanadaTel: 1 514 340 5711, ext. 4804Fax: 1 514 340 5841bladanyi@mail.polymtl.ca

CryosolsDr. Sergey V. GoryachkinInstitute of GeographyRussian Academy of SciencesStaromonetnyi pers. 29109017 Moscow, RussiaTel: 7 095 238 1867Fax: 7 095 230 2090pedology@igras.geonet.ru

Dr. Charles TarnocaiAgriculture and Agri-Food, CanadaK.W. Neatby Building, Rm 1135960 Carling AvenueOttawa, Ontario K1A 0C6, CanadaTel: 1 613 759 1857Fax: 1 613 759 1937tarnocaict@em.agr.ca

Coastal and Offshore PermafrostDr. Hans HubbertenAlfred Wegener InstituteTelegrafenberg A43Potsdam, D-14773 GermanyTel: 49 331 288 2100Fax: 49 331 288 2137hubbert@awi-potsdam.de

Prof. Nikolai N. RomanovskiiDepartment of GeocryologyFaculty of GeologyMoscow State UniversityVorobyovy Gory119899 Moscow, RussiaTel: 7 095 939 1937; 133-2668 (home)Fax: 7 095 932 8889nromanovsky@glas.apc.org

Coastal Erosion SubgroupDr. Steven SolomonGeological Survey of Canada (Atlantic)P.O. Box 1006Dartmouth, Nova Scotia B2Y 4A2CanadaTel: 1 902 426 8911Fax: 1 902 426 4104ssolomon@agc.bio.ns.ca

Southern HemispherePermafrost and PeriglacialEnvironmentsDr. Jan BoelhouwersDepartment of Earth SciencesUniversity of the Western CapePrivate Bag X17, Bellville 7535South AfricaTel: 27 21 9592135Fax: 27 21 9592438janboel@uwc.ac.za

Prof. Kevin HallGeography ProgramUniversity of Northern BritishColumbia3333 University WayPrince George, BC, V2N 4Z9, Canadahall@unbc.ca

Working Groups, Co-Chairs

Rock Glacier Dynamics andPermafrost CreepProf. Wilfried HaeberliDepartment of GeographyUniversity of ZürichWinterthurerstrasse 190CH-8057 Zürich, SwitzerlandTel: 41 1 635 51 20Fax: 41 1 635 68 48haeberli@geo.unizh.ch

Mapping and Distribution Modelling ofMountain PermafrostDr. Bernd Etzelmuller,Department of Physical Geography,University of OsloP.O. Box 1042, BlindernOslo, N-0316 NorwayTel: 47 2285 7229Fax: 47 2285 7230bernd.etzelmuller@geografi.uio.no

Isotope/Geochemistry of PermafrostDr. Rein Vaikmäe,Institute of GeologyTallinn Technical UniversityEstonia pst. 7EE0001 Tallinn, EstoniaTel: 372 641 0091Fax: 372 631 2074vaikmae@gi.ee

Task Forces, Chairs

Individual MembersDr. Rein Vaikmäe,Institute of GeologyTallinn Technical UniversityEstonia pst. 7EE0001 Tallinn, EstoniaTel: 372 641 0091Fax: 372 631 2074vaikmae@gi.ee

Dr. Petru E. UrdeaWest University of TimisoaraDepartment of GeographyPestalozzi Str. 161900, Timisoara, RomaniaTel: 40 56 190 377Fax: 40 56 190 333urdea@cbg.uvt.ro

Dr. Goncalo Teles VieiraCentro de Estudos GeograficosUniversidade de LisboaFaculdade de LetrasAlameda da Universidade1600-214 Lisboa, PortugalTel: 351 1 7940218Fax: 351 1 7938690gtvieira@ceg.ul.pt

ChinaThe Cold and Arid Regions Environmental andEngineering Research Institute (CAREERI), ChineseAcademy of Sciences (CAS), is a new institute organisedin June 1999 following the Knowledge Innovation Projectof the CAS. The organisation was based on three formerCAS institutes – the Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology andGeocryology, the Lanzhou Institute of Desert Researchand the Lanzhou Institute of Plateau AtmosphericSciences (or Research). The goals of the new organisationare disciplinary integration and scientific syntheses, whileretaining the present unique and distinguisheddisciplines.

To optimise the disciplines, the new institute iscomposed of six divisions: Cryosphere and GlobalChange, Desert and Desertification, Plateau AtmosphericPhysics, Frozen Soils and Cold Regions Engineering,Land-water Resources and Ecology and Agriculture. Thefirst three divisions are based on a merger of the existinginstitutes and laboratories. The last three divisions wereformed through a combination of research groups fromthe three former institutes and scientists and engineersfrom universities and local institutions.

The new organisation has a staff of 200 senior scientists,mid-level scientists and technicians. Fifty-five are leadingscientists, engaged in research domestically and abroad,131 are mid-level scientists and technicians and 14 aremanagement or logistics personnel. Looking to the future,an emphasis has been placed on organising a youngerstaff; the average age is younger than 40 years and 60 %are younger than 45 years old. The new institute will retain230 to 240 positions for graduate and postgraduatestudents (about 150-180 positions), and for visitingscholars and distinguished scientists (about 50 positions).

Major research activities will be focused on glaciology,cryopedology and cold regions engineering, desert anddesertification, hydrology and land resources in cold andarid regions, and plateau atmospheric sciences.Restoration and rehabilitation ecology and regionalagriculture will be a new field to be developed.

Major fields of research for the new institute willinclude climate, polar and mountain glaciers, ice cores andglobal change, freeze-thaw processes in the cold regionsenvironment, the physics and mechanics of frozen soilsin cold regions engineering, wind sand physics anddesertification dynamics, desert environment evolutionand global change, desertification and control,hydrological processes and water resources in cold andarid regions, water resources capacity and optimisation,environment and dynamics in plateau and adjacentregions, convective wind-storm and thunder-lightingphysics, mechanisms of and the mitigation of the effectsof meteorological disasters (droughts, hails,thunderstorms, sand-dust storms and snow hazards),ecological processes and their mechanisms in fragile anddegraded ecosystems in cold and arid regions, restoration

and rehabilitation of highly efficient water-saving eco-agriculture, and the development of a strategy forsustainable eco-agriculture in cold and arid regions.

Cheng Guodong, Academician of the CAS, Presidentof the Lanzhou Branch of the CAS, a former President ofthe International Permafrost Association and a 1965graduate from the Beijing College of Geology, is thedirector of the CAREERI. His long-term studies of frozensoils on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau contributed to thesolution of the mechanism of ground ice formation,implemented the mapping of permafrost distribution,provided principles and methods for engineeringconstruction in permafrost regions and contributed toseveral construction programmes on the Plateau.

Jin Huijun (hjjin@ns.lzb.ac.cn)

Additional Member Report

IPA web site with links to other permafrost-related sites:http://www.geodata.soton.ac.uk/ipa

CAPS CD information:http://www-nsidc.colorado.edu/NSIDC/CATALOG/ENTRIES/G01175.html

IPA Circum-Arctic Permafrost Map:ftp://ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov/Snow_Ice/Permafrost/IPA_map/

On- line metadata for Global Georyological Database (GGD):http://www-nsidc.colorado.edu/NOAA/GGD/

Cirumpoar Active Layer Monitoring:http://www.geography.uc.edu/~kenhinke/CALM

Permafrost and Climate in Europe (PACE):http://www.cf.ac.uk/uwcc/earth/pace/

Global Terrestial Network on Permafrost (GTNet-P):http://sts.gsc.nrcan.gc.ca/permafrost/

Layout : Kent Pørksen, Institute of Geography, University of Copenhagen

Printed : Clichéfa Tryk A/S, Denmark

IPA