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Geocryology
Geocryology

Characteristics and Use of Frozen

Ground and Permafrost Landforms

Stuart A. Harris
Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary,Alberta, Canada

Anatoli Brouchkov
Geocryology Department, Faculty of Geology, Moscow State University,
Moscow, Russia

Cheng Guodong
Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute,
Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou, China
CRC Press/Balkema is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Taylor & Francis Group, London, UK
Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India
Printed and bound in Great Britain by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
All rights reserved. No part of this publication or the information contained
herein may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any
form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, by photocopying, recording or
otherwise, without written prior permission from the publishers.
Although all care is taken to ensure integrity and the quality of this publication
and the information herein, no responsibility is assumed by the publishers nor
the author for any damage to the property or persons as a result of operation
or use of this publication and/or the information contained herein.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Harris, Stuart A., author.
Title: Geocryology : Characteristics and Use of Frozen Ground and Permafrost Landforms /
Stuart A. Harris, Department of Geography, University of Calgary, Calgary Alberta, Canada,
Anatoli Brouchkov, Geocryology Department, Faculty of Geology, Moscow
State University, Moscow, Russia, Cheng Guodong, Cold and Arid Regions
Environmental and Engineering Research Institute, Chinese Academy of
Sciences, Lanzhou, China.
Description: First edition. | Boca Raton, Florida : CRC Press/Balkema is an
imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, [2017] | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017024668 (print) | LCCN 2017034592 (ebook) | ISBN
9781315166988 (ebook) | ISBN 9781138054165 (hardcover : alk. paper)
Subjects: LCSH: Frozen ground.
Classification: LCC GB641 (ebook) | LCC GB641 .H37 2017 (print) | DDC
551.3/8–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017024668

Published by: CRC Press/Balkema

Schipholweg 107C, 2316 XC Leiden,The Netherlands
e-mail: Pub.NL@taylorandfrancis.com
www.crcpress.com – www.taylorandfrancis.com
ISBN: 978-1-138-05416-5 (Hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-16698-8 (eBook)
Table of contents

Preface xv
About the authors xvii
Acknowledgements xix
Dedication xxi
List of figures xxiii
List of tables xxxix
List of symbols xli

Part I Introduction and characteristics of permafrost 1

1 Definition and description 3

1.1 Introduction 3
1.2 Additional terms originating in Russia 7
1.3 History of permafrost research 8
1.4 Measurement of ground temperature 9
1.5 Conduction, convection and advection 9
1.6 Thermal regimes in regions based on heat conduction 10
1.7 Continentality index 15
1.8 Moisture movement in the active layer during freezing and thawing 16
1.9 Moisture conditions in permafrost ground 18
1.10 Results of freezing moisture 20
1.11 Strength of ice 22
1.12 Cryosols, gelisols, and leptosols 22
1.13 Fragipans 22
1.14 Salinity in permafrost regions 24
1.15 Organic matter 28
1.16 Micro-organisms in permafrost 30
1.16.1 Antarctic permafrost 31
1.16.2 High-latitude permafrost 31
1.16.3 High altitude permafrost in China 32
1.16.4 Phenotypic traits 32
1.16.5 Relation to climate change on the Tibetan plateau 34
1.17 Gas and gas hydrates 35
vi Table of contents

1.18 Thermokarst areas 37

1.19 Offshore permafrost 38

2 Cryogenic processes where temperatures dip below 0◦ C 43

2.1 Introduction 43
2.2 The nature of ice and water 43
2.3 Effects of oil pollution on freezing 50
2.4 Freezing and thawing of the active layer in permafrost in
equilibrium with a stable climate 51
2.5 Relation of clay mineralogy to the average position of the
permafrost table 53
2.6 Ground temperature envelopes in profiles affected by changes in
mean annual ground surface temperature (MASGT) 54
2.7 Needle ice 58
2.8 Frost heaving 59
2.9 Densification and thaw settlement 60
2.10 Cryostratigraphy, cryostructures, cryotextures and cryofacies 60
2.11 Ground cracking 61
2.12 Dilation cracking 63
2.13 Frost susceptibility 64
2.14 Cryoturbation, gravity processes and injection structures 65
2.14.1 Cryoturbation 65
2.14.2 Upward injection of sediments from below 69
2.14.3 Load-casting 69
2.15 Upheaving of objects 71
2.16 Upturning of objects 72
2.17 Sorting 73
2.18 Weathering and frost comminution 74
2.19 Karst in areas with permafrost 78
2.20 Seawater density and salinity 80

3 Factors affecting permafrost distribution 85

3.1 Introduction 85
3.2 Climatic factors 85
3.2.1 Heat balance on the surface of the Earth and its effect on
the climate 85
3.2.2 Relationship between air and ground temperatures 91
3.2.3 Thermal offset 93
3.2.4 Relation to air masses 96
3.2.5 Precipitation 99
3.2.6 Latitude and longitude 103
3.2.7 Topography and altitude 105
3.2.8 Cold air drainage 107
3.2.9 Buffering of temperatures against change in
mountain ranges 108
3.3 Terrain factors 109
3.3.1 Vegetation 109
 Table of contents vii

3.3.2 Hydrology 111

3.3.3 Lakes and water bodies 115
3.3.4 Nature of the soil and rock 117
3.3.5 Fire 118
3.3.6 Glaciers 119
3.3.7 The effects of Man 122

4 Permafrost distribution 123

4.1 Introduction 123
4.2 Zonation of permafrost 126
4.3 Permafrost mapping 127
4.4 Examples of mapping units used 129
4.5 Modeling permafrost distribution 130
4.6 Advances in geophysical methods 131
4.7 Causes of variability reducing the reliability of small-scale maps 131
4.8 Maps of permafrost-related properties based on field observations 135
4.8.1 Permafrost thickness 135
4.8.2 Maps of ice content 135
4.8.3 Water resources locked up in perennially frozen ground 136
4.8.4 Total carbon content 139
4.9 Use of remote sensing and airborne platforms in monitoring
environmental conditions and disturbances 140
4.10 Sensitivity to climate change: Hazard zonation 140
4.11 Classification of permafrost stability based on mean annual ground
temperature 142

Part II Permafrost landforms 145

II.1 Introduction 145

5 Frost cracking, ice-wedges, sand, loess and rock tessellons 149

5.1 Introduction 149
5.2 Primary and secondary wedges 153
5.2.1 Primary wedges 153
5.2.1.1 Ice-wedges 153
5.2.1.2 Sand tessellons 167
5.2.1.3 Loess tessellons 170
5.2.1.4 Rock tessellons 170
5.2.2 Secondary wedges 170
5.2.2.1 Ice-wedge casts 171
5.2.2.2 Soil wedges 173

6 Massive ground ice in lowlands 179

6.1 Introduction 179
6.2 Distribution of massive icy beds in surface sediments 181
6.3 Sources of the sediments 182
6.4 Deglaciation of the Laurentide ice sheet 183
6.5 Methods used to determine the origin of the massive icy beds 186
viii Table of contents

6.6 Massive icy beds interpreted as being formed by cryosuction 186

6.7 Massive icy beds that may represent stagnant glacial ice 187
6.8 Other origins of massive icy beds 189
6.9 Ice complexes including yedoma deposits 189
6.10 Conditions for growth of thick ice-wedges 190
6.11 The mechanical condition of the growth of ice-wedges and its
connection to the properties of the surrounding sediments 192
6.12 Buoyancy of ice-wedges 193
6.13 Summary of the ideas explaining yedoma evolution 195
6.14 Aufeis 195
6.15 Perennial ice caves 198
6.16 Types of ice found in perennial ice caves 200
6.17 Processes involved in the formation of perennial ice caves 202
6.18 Cycles of perennial cave evolution 204
6.18.1 Perennial ice caves in deep hollows 204
6.18.2 Sloping caves with two entrances 205
6.18.3 Perennial ice caves with only one main entrance but air
entering through cracks and joints in the bedrock walls 206
6.18.4 Perennial ice caves with only one main entrance and no
other sources of cooling 206
6.19 Ice caves in subtropical climates 207
6.20 Massive blocks of ice in bedrock or soil 210

7 Permafrost mounds 213

7.1 Introduction 213
7.2 Mounds over 2.5 m diameter 214
7.2.1 Mounds formed predominantly of injection ice 215
7.2.1.1 Pingo mounds 215
7.2.1.2 Hydrostatic or closed system pingos 216
7.2.1.3 Hydraulic or open system pingos 218
7.2.1.4 Pingo plateaus 222
7.2.1.5 Seasonal frost mounds 225
7.2.1.6 Icing blisters 226
7.2.1.7 Perennial mounds of uncertain origin 228
7.2.1.8 Similar mounds that can be confused with
injection phenomena 228
7.2.2 Mounds formed dominantly by cryosuction 229
7.2.2.1 Palsas 230
7.2.2.1.1 Palsas in maritime climates 231
7.2.2.1.2 Palsas in cold, continental climates 234
7.2.2.1.3 Lithalsas 239
7.2.2.1.4 Palsa/Lithalsa look-alikes 243
7.2.3 Mounds formed by the accumulation of ice in the thawing
fringe: Peat plateaus 244
7.3 Cryogenic mounds less than 2.5 m in diameter 249
7.3.1 Oscillating hummocks 252
 Table of contents ix

7.3.2 Thufurs 256

7.3.3 Silt-cycling hummocks 260
7.3.4 Niveo-aeolian hummocks 261
7.3.5 Similar-looking mounds of uncertain origin 263
7.3.6 String bogs 264
7.3.7 Pounus 265

8 Mass wasting of fine-grained materials in cold climates 267

8.1 Introduction 267
8.2 Classification of mass wasting 267
8.3 Slow flows 269
8.3.1 Cryogenic creep 269
8.3.1.1 Needle ice creep 270
8.3.1.2 Frost heave and frost creep 272
8.3.1.3 Gelifluction 274
8.3.1.4 Other creep-type contributions to downslope
movement of soil 276
8.3.2 Landforms produced by cryogenic slow flows
in humid areas 279
8.3.3 Landforms developed by cryogenic flows in
more arid regions 284
8.4 Cryogenic fast flows 287
8.4.1 Cryogenic debris flows 287
8.4.2 Cryogenic slides and slumps 296
8.4.3 Cryogenic composite slope failures 297
8.4.3.1 Active-layer detachment slides 298
8.4.3.2 Retrogressive thaw failures 300
8.4.3.3 Snow avalanches and slushflows 304
8.4.3.3.1 Snow avalanches 306
8.4.3.3.2 Slush avalanches 310
8.5 Relative effect in moving debris downslope in the mountains 313

9 Landforms consisting of blocky materials in cold climates 315

9.1 Introduction 315
9.2 Source of the blocks 315
9.3 Influence of rock type 317
9.4 Weathering products 318
9.5 Biogenic weathering 319
9.6 Fate of the soluble salts produced by chemical and
biogenic weathering 320
9.7 Rate of cliff retreat 321
9.8 Landforms resulting from the accumulation of predominantly
blocky materials in cryogenic climates 322
9.8.1 Cryogenic block fields 322
9.8.1.1 Measurement of rates of release of
blocks on slopes 326
x Table of contents

9.8.2 Cryogenic block slopes and fans 326

9.8.3 Classification of cryogenic talus slopes 329
9.8.3.1 Coarse blocky talus slopes 331
9.8.4 Protection of infrastructure from falling rock 332
9.9 Talus containing significant amounts of finer material 333
9.9.1 Rock glaciers 334
9.9.1.1 Sedimentary composition and structure of
active rock glaciers 337
9.9.1.2 Origin of the ice in active rock glaciers 338
9.9.1.3 Relationship to vegetation 339
9.9.2 Movement of active rock glaciers 340
9.9.2.1 Horizontal movement 340
9.9.2.2 Movement of the front 341
9.9.3 Distribution of active rock glaciers 345
9.9.4 Inactive and fossil rock glaciers 347
9.9.5 Streams flowing from under rock glaciers 348
9.10 Cryogenic block streams 349
9.10.1 Characteristics 351
9.10.2 Classification 354
9.10.2.1 Siberian active dynamic block
streams – kurums 355
9.10.2.2 The Tibetan type of active dynamic
block streams 357
9.10.2.3 Active cryogenic lag block streams 359
9.10.2.4 Inactive, relict block streams 359
9.11 Surface appearance of blocky landforms 365

10 Cryogenic patterned ground 367

10.1 Introduction 367
10.2 Forms of cryogenic patterned ground 368
10.3 Factors affecting the development of cryogenic
patterned ground 369
10.4 Macroforms of cryogenic patterned ground 373
10.4.1 Cryogenic nonsorted circles 374
10.4.1.1 Cryogenic mudboils 375
10.4.1.1.1 Arctic mudboils 376
10.4.1.1.2 Subarctic mudboils 379
10.4.1.2 Xeric nonsorted circles 381
10.4.1.3 Nonsorted circles in maritime climates 384
10.4.1.4 Frost boils 385
10.4.1.5 Plug circles 386
10.5 Cryogenic sorted patterned ground 387
10.5.1 Cryogenic sorted circles 388
10.5.2 Cryogenic sorted polygons, and nets 391
10.5.2.1 Sorted stripes 391
10.5.2.2 Stone pits 392
 Table of contents xi

10.6 Identification of active versus inactive forms of

macro-sorted patterns 393
10.7 Microforms of cryogenic patterned ground 394

11 Thermokarst and thermal erosion 397

11.1 Introduction 397
11.2 Causes of thermokarst 400
11.3 Cavity development in permafrost 402
11.4 Effect of thermokarst on soil 403
11.5 Thermokarst landforms 405
11.5.1 Thermokarst pits 406
11.5.2 Thermokarst mounds 407
11.5.3 Pingo, palsa and lithalsa scars 409
11.5.4 Beaded streams 411
11.5.5 Thermokarst lakes 412
11.5.6 Oriented lakes 415
11.5.7 Alases 417
11.5.8 Cycle of alas formation 418
11.6 Thermokarst and thermal erosion along river banks 424
11.6.1 Ice jams 425
11.7 Thermal erosion and thermokarst processes along sea coasts 429
11.7.1 Effects of seasonal sea ice 430
11.7.2 Effects of geology 433
11.7.3 Topographic effects 433
11.7.4 Sea conditions 434
11.7.5 Deposition of sediments 435
11.8 Processes involved in the erosion of ice-rich arctic
coastal sediments 435
11.9 Importance of coastal erosion of sediments containing
permafrost 439

Part III Use of permafrost areas 441

III.1 Introduction 441

12 The mechanics of frozen soils 445

12.1 Introduction 445
12.2 Strains and stresses in the freezing and thawing of soils
resulting in frost heaving 445
12.3 Rheological processes 456
12.4 Frost susceptibility 460

13 Foundations in permafrost regions: building stability 465

13.1 Introduction 465
13.2 The effect of construction on permafrost stability 468
13.3 Choice of method of construction 470
13.4 Building materials 471
xii Table of contents

13.5 Timing of construction 472

13.6 Types of foundations 473
13.6.1 Pads 473
13.6.2 Slabs and rafts 474
13.6.3 Sills 475
13.6.4 Spread footings 476
13.6.5 Piles 477
13.6.6 Thermosiphons 482
13.6.7 Artificial refrigeration 489
13.6.8 Ventilation ducts 490
13.6.9 Angle of slope of the embankment sides 492
13.6.10 Snow removal 492
13.6.11 The diode effect: use of rocks 493
13.6.12 Shading 496
13.6.13 Insulation 497
13.6.14 Use of geotextiles and waterproof plastics 498

14 Roads, railways and airfields 501

14.1 Introduction 501
14.2 The problems 501
14.3 Types of roads 502
14.4 Experimental embankments 504
14.5 Winter roads 505
14.6 Environmental effects of winter roads 507
14.7 Embankment heights 508
14.8 Unpaved embankments 509
14.9 Main problems with embankment stability 518
14.10 Concrete versus ballast railway tracks 524
14.11 Paving of road and airfield runways 527
14.12 Use of white paint 529
14.13 Bridges 530
14.14 Icings 532
14.15 Cut slopes 538
14.16 Airfield construction 538

15 Oil and gas industry 543

15.1 Introduction 543
15.2 Oil and gas exploration 543
15.3 Drilling rigs 546
15.4 Production and keeper wells 547
15.5 Sump problems 549
15.6 Pipelines 550
15.6.1 Buried mode 551
15.6.2 Pipelines on piles 559
15.6.2.1 Design parameters 563
 Table of contents xiii

15.6.2.2 Construction methods 564

15.6.2.3 Failures in the buried section 564
15.7 Monitoring 566
15.8 Compressor stations 566
15.9 Pipeline crossings 569
15.10 Effects of heat advection from producing wells 571
15.11 Gas hydrates in permafrost ice 571

16 Mining in permafrost areas 577

16.1 Introduction 577
16.2 Placer mining 577
16.3 Open cast/pit mining 580
16.3.1 Exploration 582
16.3.2 Extraction of the ore 582
16.4 Underground mining 587
16.4.1 Transport of the ore around the mine 589
16.4.2 Support facilities 590
16.5 Waste materials and tailings ponds 590
16.5.1 Toxic wastes 592

17 Provision of utilities 597

17.1 Introduction 597
17.2 Water supply 598
17.2.1 Sources of water 598
17.2.2 Dams to impound water on permafrost 600
17.2.3 Municipal water storage 602
17.2.4 Water treatment 602
17.2.5 Water requirements 603
17.2.6 Transportation methods for water and waste water 604
17.3 Waste disposal 607
17.3.1 Wastewater treatment and disposal 607
17.3.1.1 Undiluted wastes 608
17.3.1.2 Moderately diluted wastes 608
17.3.1.3 Conventional strength wastewater 609
17.3.1.4 Very dilute waste water 609
17.3.2 Solid waste disposal 610
17.4 Electric transmission lines 610
17.4.1 Foundation problems for transmission lines built
on permafrost 611
17.4.2 Transmission tower foundation types 614

18 Agriculture and forestry 617

18.1 Introduction 617
18.2 Zonation of natural vegetation across Siberia 621
18.3 Zonation of natural vegetation in North America 623
xiv Table of contents

18.4 Southern and Eastern Kazakhstan, Mongolia and the

Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 625
18.5 The Eichfeld zones 626
18.5.1 Eichfeld zone I 627
18.5.2 Eichfeld zone II 627
18.5.3 Eichfeld zone III 629
18.5.3.1 The northern Taiga 629
18.6 Asian steppe grasslands and deserts 630
18.7 The development of modern agriculture in permafrost areas 632
18.8 Forestry 633
18.9 Potential effects of climate changes 634

References 637
Subject index 755
Preface

This book is intended to be a general survey of the young science of Geocryology,

which is the study of permafrost, its nature, characteristics, processes and distribution.
Permafrost is the product of a combination of a number of climatic and environmental
factors that produce frozen ground and icy layers. It has an enormous impact on the
use of unglaciated cold regions and environments on the Earth. These regions differ
from warmer areas by the presence of seasonally and/or perennially frozen ground.
Movement of moisture to centres of freezing produces heaving, while contraction of
the ground in cold weather can cause cracking. A unique group of landforms and
processes occur in these areas that are not found elsewhere.
Permafrost occurs on all continents except perhaps Australia. Its distribution is
closely related to climate and the local environment, and any changes in the microen-
vironment will result in either expansion or loss of ground ice. Once water appears at
the surface, thawing of the ground ice is difficult to stop, and results in the develop-
ment of a group of landforms called thermokarst. The hydrology of permafrost areas
is much more complex than in other environments, and water itself is a source of
heat that can destabilize the ground ice. Areas with saline soils are common in arid
lands, as well as those regions which have been under the sea. Any soluble salts modify
the properties of the ground producing reduced bearing strength and lowered freezing
point of water.
These cold conditions tend to cause breakup of materials such as concrete, bricks and
mortar, as well as variations in thermal expansion that put equipment and structures at
risk. The growth of ice causes heaving, while thawing of ground ice leads to subsidence
and soil flowage. Coastal areas are subjected to serious erosion of different kinds to
those in warmer regions, while the spring thaw produces substantial concentrations of
water in the surface layers of the ground that result in flows and slides. Bearing capacity
of the ground varies with season and is often significantly lower than elsewhere. Total
incoming solar radiation varies with aspect, resulting in gradual tilting of structures.
These structures can destabilize the permafrost resulting in failure of foundations.
Thus these regions exhibit numerous problems for humans which are unique to cold
climates.
Increasingly Mankind is extracting resources from these regions, and this requires
a good knowledge of the field of Geocryology in order to carry out projects that will
be successful, economic ventures. Initially, there has to be exploration which can be
carried out using winter roads, often along cut lines through the vegetation. When a
xvi Preface

suitable deposit is found, it is necessary to prove its quality and extent, which involves
building better quality roads to allow access for drilling equipment. When an adequate
venture has been discovered, further upgrading of the access is necessary to bring in
buildings, equipment, workers, and supplies, and to construct suitable waste disposal
facilities such as sumps. Power sources must be obtained, water supplies found and
buildings constructed as necessary. In order to get the products to market, it is essential
to have good, reliable, linear transportation routes such as roads and railways. People
must live in these areas to carry out the necessary work.
Indigenous people usually inhabit these remote areas, and also require modern facil-
ities and infrastructure. Where possible, they should be given employment in return for
the disturbance of their local surroundings. Furthermore, the natural environment and
wildlife must be protected as far as possible. These landscapes are very fragile and it is
essential to avoid serious damage, particularly of the type that makes the ways of life
of the indigenous people impossible. Pollution of the environment must be minimized,
and the waterways treated with respect. At the end of the life of a project, suitable
funds should have been set aside to clean up and rehabilitate the area. Unfortunately,
this is often not done.
Some permafrost areas are important grazing lands at low latitudes as well as at
high elevations such as on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and in Mongolia. Large areas of
tiaga represent some of the largest contiguous forest resources. Any disturbance of the
vegetation can produce changes in ground temperature conditions, so that sustainable
use of these landscapes can be problematic.
This book is written by three scientists representing three countries with extensive
areas of permafrost and three different language groups. Together, they have had over
120 years of experience in dealing with permafrost problems around the world, and
they try to present a world view of what can be found in these areas. Similar problems
are found in each part of the permafrost realm, and a comparison of the knowledge
gained in different parts of the world shows considerable similarities. However, climate
and other factors produce significant local modifications, so that no one continent or
country exhibits the whole range of variability. For this reason, a global view seems
justified.
This book is organized into three parts. Part one consists of an introduction to
the characteristics of permafrost. It is organized in four chapters dealing with the
definition and characteristics of permafrost, the unique processes operating in areas of
frozen ground, the factors affecting it, and an explanation of its distribution. Part two
consists of seven chapters describing the characteristic landforms unique to permafrost
areas. Finally, the third part describes the extra problems encountered by engineers in
construction projects in permafrost areas, as well as by foresters and agriculturalists.
A good bibliography is provided, along with more than 350 illustrations to make the
book more user-friendly.
About the authors

Stuart Arthur Harris was born on January 14th, 1931, in

Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England. He earned the degrees
of B. Sc. (Honours), M.Sc. and Ph.D. in Geology and D.Sc. in
Geography from Queen Mary University, University of London.
During his National Service, he advised the Chief Engineers
Branch, British Troops Egypt and the Arab Legion Engineers
in Jordan, solving problems in geology, water supply and engi-
neering. Subsequently, he was a soil surveyor for the consulting
firm, Hunting Technical Services, before becoming Government
Soil Surveyor in Guyana. He taught in the geography Depart-
ments of the University of Chicago, Wilfred Laurier University,
and the University of Kansas before joining the University of Calgary in 1969. The
National Research Council of Canada asked him to study the relationship of climate
to permafrost in 1973, and he mapped the permafrost distribution from Northern
New Mexico to Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Subsequently, he carried out detailed
studies of the permafrost landforms and processes in northwest Canada, as well as
on the Tibetan Plateau, China. He has carried out field work in Iceland, the Alps,
Poland, Russia, China, Mongolia, New Zealand and Kazakhstan, publishing over
200 papers, books and reports. The Russian Geographical Society awarded him the
Nikolai Mihailovich Prjevalsky Medal for his research on Alpine permafrost in 1996.
He has also organised three International Field Trips in the Rocky Mountains for
overseas scientists in connection with International meetings in Canada.

Professor Anatoli Brouchkov was born April 18, 1957 and

raised in Khatanga of Arctic Siberia. He obtained his Ph.D
and D.Sc degrees from the Geocryology Department of
Geology Faculty of Lomonosov Moscow State University,
studying under the tutelage of some of the recent famous
Russian permafrost scientists such as V.A. Kudryavtsev,
S.S. Vyalov, E. D. Yershov and N. N. Romanovski. Over
the years, he has run a geocryological laboratory for the
Russian Academy of Sciences as well as an underground
permafrost laboratory in Amderma, involving research all
over the Russian Arctic. He has specialized in the study of
the effects of salinity on the properties of frozen ground and the effects of climate
xviii About the authors

change on permafrost. He has also carried out a research on the survival of microor-
ganisms in permafrost. In addition, he has acted as a geocryological consultant to
Gazprom and other Russian and international companies, and a permafrost expert
for World Meteorological Organization. He was a professor at Hokkaido University
(Japan, 2001–2004) and Tyumen State University (since 2005), publishing over 150
papers and books. In 2010, he succeeded the late Edward Yershov as Professor and
Head of the Geocryology Department of Moscow State University.

Academician Cheng Guodong was born on July 11th, 1943

in Shanghai, China. He earned his B.Sc. at Beijing Geology
College (China University of Geosciences), and carried out
fundamental research in the CREEL laboratories at Hanover,
New Hampshire, before returning to China. Guodong became
an Academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1993.
He was responsible for reorganizing the Institute of Glaciology
and Geocryology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences to form
the Cold and Arid Regions Environmental and Engineering
Research Institute. He has led the research very successfully,
thus enabling the modernization of the construction techniques
in the permafrost areas of China during the last 15 years. One of his most important
achievements was the development of the most effective methods of cooling the beds of
linear transportation routes using blocks of rock. He has written eight books, and his
name appears below the title of numerous papers dealing with the use of permafrost
lands. He has received many awards in China, as well as being the recipient of one
of the first three IPA Lifetime Achievement awards by the International Permafrost
Association.
Acknowledgements

A number of living and deceased colleagues and organizations have kindly permitted
the use of their photographs in this book. Thanks are due to Vasily Bogoyaavlensky
(Figure 7.9), B. Burton (Figure 10.3), Mike Chambers (Figure 10.2), Lee and Barbara
Clayton (Figure 6.6), Hanna H. Christiansen (Figure 7.16), R. V. Desyatkin and A. V.
Desyatkin (Figure 11.17), R. O. van Everdingen (Figure 11.8), S. Fomin (Figure 5.20),
D. Froese (Figure 5.22), Aldar Gorbunov (Figure 9.13), M. Grigoriev (Figures 1.31,
6.4 & 6.8A), Gennady Griva (Figures 15.6 & 15.9), A. Gubarkov (Figures 5.3, 8.5 &
11.2), Bernard Hallet (Figure 10.1), Owen L. Hughes (Figure 11.6), B. M. Jones (Figure
11.37), V. Kondratiev (Figures 13.35, 14.18 & 14.19), A.G. Kostyaev, (Figure 6.8B),
I. W. Lee (Figure 14.25), A. G. Lewkowicz (Figure 7.43), J. Ross Mackay (Figures
7.3 & 11.13), V. Melnikov (Figure 13.7), A. Osokin (Figures 14.1, 14.12 & 14.22),
E. Pike (5.16), L. and S. Rollinson (2.8), M. Rosen (Figure 13.37), Vera Samsonova
(Figure 5.31, 6.2 & 13.25), M. K. Seguin (Figure 7.21), W. W. Shilts (Figure 11.10), C.
Scapozza (Figure 9.11), V. Singhroy (Figure 8.33), Tourismusverband Werfen (Figures
6.12 & 6.13), A. Cheng (Figure 11.8), J.-S. St. Vincent (Figure 11.35), G.-S. Wang
(Figure 17.9), Sizhong Wang (Figure 5.9), Yakutic Reindeer Tours (Figure 18.4), Y.-H.
You (Figure 17.5) and M. Zheleznyak (Figure 4.12). The rest of the photographs were
taken by one or other of the authors as indicated in the captions.
Several Journals have permitted the use of illustrations previously published in their
volumes including Arctic (Figures 1.8, 1.10, 3.17, 3.5, 3.6, 4.2, and iii.1), Arctic,
Antarctic and Alpine Research, formerly Arctic and Alpine Research, courtesy of the
Regents of the University of Colorado (Figures 7.22, 8.6, 8.7A, 10.10 and Table 1.1).
In addition, Elsevier (Table 3.1), Matti Seppälä (Figure 7.18) and V. Romanovsky
(Figure 2.7) have permitted the use of previously published figures. Figures 1.9, 1.13,
1.14, 2.23, 4.17, 13.8, 16.5, 18.12, 18.13 and Tables ii.2 are reproduced from the
book, The Permafrost Environment written by Stuart A. Harris and published in 1986.
In most cases, the diagrams have been redrawn by Robin Poitras of the Department of
Geography, University of Calgary, in order to bring the drawings to a consistent style
throughout this book. Pamela Harris kindly proof-read the manuscript, along with
Anatoli Brouchkov and Stuart Harris.
Dedication

This book is dedicated to our wives, Pamela Rosemary Harris, Marina Brouchkova and
Zhang Youfen, in appreciation of their endless patience, support and companionship
over the last several decades while we were carrying out research in Geocryology.
Without them, this book would not have been possible.
List of figures

1.1 Typical profile showing icy permafrost 2

1.2 Names of the parts of the upper layers in a permafrost profile 4
1.3 Rotten porous ice 5
1.4 Block diagram of an area with permafrost showing the names of the 5
constituent parts
1.5 Change in active layer thickness in bedrock at Plateau Mountain, Alberta 6
1.6 Geothermal gradients in boreholes at Prudhoe Bay, and Barrow, Alaska, 11
showing the effect of different thermal conductivities of rock
1.7 Effect of differences in texture on active layer thickness 11
1.8 Ground temperatures measured at 4–10 m depth in Shargin’s well 13
1.9 Temperature distribution versus time for wet tundra and alpine tundra 13
1.10 Variation in duration of the zero curtain effect in clay and shattered rock 14
as a function of depth
1.11 Thermal temperature envelope for a site with permafrost 15
1.12 Change in ground temperature during the year in relation to moisture 17
movement
1.13 Diagram showing the normal distribution of H2 O in permafrost 18
1.14 Changes in the perched water table after drilling 19
1.15 Frost action on sandstone and ice-wedge casts 21
1.16 Sorted stone circles on Plateau Mountain, Alberta 21
1.17 Distribution of fragipans in post-Wisconsin sediments in N. America 23
1.18 Changes in salinity along a traverse across the Slims River Delta 25
1.19 Warm spring along the Golmud-Lhasa road, Tibet 26
1.20 An open system (East Greenland type) pingo at a spring in the Kunlun 27
Pass along the Golmud-Lhasa road
1.21 Distribution of the main areas of the two types of salinity 28
1.22 Distribution of peatlands in the northern Hemisphere 29
1.23 Relative abundance of micro-organisms in the four main permafrost 30
areas
1.24 Variation in community composition of micro-organisms in permafrost 33
between various Chinese mountain ranges
1.25 Micro-organisms, decomposition of organic matter in soils and release of 34
greenhouse gases
1.26 Zonation of permafrost and gas hydrates with latitude in Russia 35
1.27 Stability of the methane-water-gas hydrate system 36
1.28 Gas hydrates burning in Chinese permafrost 37
xxiv List of figures

1.29 Distribution of subsea permafrost in the Arctic 39

1.30 Horsts and graben in the Laptev Sea 40
1.31 Ice-wedges in eroding cliffs on Big Lyakovsky Island, Arctic coast, Siberia 40
2.1 Vertical ice crystals perpendicular to the freezing plane 44
2.2 Structure of a water molecule in the gaseous state 45
2.3 Phase diagram for pure water in the range of temperature and pressure 46
encountered on Earth
2.4 Ground temperature changes at the onset of freezing 47
2.5 Comparison of thermograms for nonsaline and saline soil containing 49
sodium chloride
2.6 Terminology for the parts of the ground temperature envelope proposed 50
by van Everdingen
2.7 Unfrozen water contents in nonsaline and saline oil-polluted soils 51
2.8 Multiple ice lenses beneath a moss layer 52
2.9 Geotherms for site #2, Plateau Mountain, Alberta, in bedrock 52
2.10 Variation in timing completion of refreezing of the active layer at 53
Marmot #2 borehole, Jasper
2.11 Theoretical effects of climatic changes on mean annual ground surface 55
temperature
2.12 Ground temperature profile at Plateau Mountain #2 borehole 55
2.13 Changes in mean annual air temperature at Yakutsk 56
2.14 Thermal disequilibrium conditions beneath water bodies 56
2.15 Modeled evolution of the ground temperatures beneath a thaw lake 57
2.16 Needle ice along the Denali Highway, Alaska 58
2.17 Fossil crack picked out by iron-staining 63
2.18 Dilation cracks on an icing mound 64
2.19 Comparison of load casting, upward injection and formation of ball-and 66
pillow structures
2.20 Cryoturbation in a soil 66
2.21 Telescoping nested rods used to measure differential heave 68
2.22 Load casting in China 70
2.23 Section showing the sharp boundary between the sandy silt infilling 71
forming a cast of a former ice block and the undisturbed outwash gravels
in the lower part of a load-cast structure
2.24 Diagram showing the mechanism of upturning of stones 73
2.25 Relationship between mean annual ground temperature and weathering 75
index
2.26 Karst features in northern Canada 79
2.27 Seawater density as a function of temperature 81
2.28 Changes in seawater density as a function of temperature during the 82
Holocene at Amundson Bay
2.29 Salinity and temperature profiles along a traverse perpendicular to the 83
coast in the shallow (<6 m) Laptev Sea
3.1 Global net radiation measured by space satellites 87
3.2 Comparison of the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere over the 88
past 4000 million years with mean annual air temperature
3.3 Mean annual ground and surface air temperatures overlying or close to 90
permafrost
 List of figures xxv

3.4 Variation in mean soil heat flux and diurnal range of heat flux at 5 cm 91
depth on silt loams under various slope conditions
3.5 Distribution of continuous permafrost (>70%), discontinuous 92
permafrost and sporadic permafrost (<30%) using annual freeze-thaw
indices
3.6 Comparison of the degree of continentality of selected permafrost 93
areas
3.7 Thermal offsets in winter in the boreal forest of Alaska 94
3.8 Evolution of Rossby Waves with time as they move east 97
3.9 North-south section through the lower atmosphere showing the climatic 98
conditions occurring in 1980 A.D. in North America
3.10 The effect of positive (warming) snow pack thermal offset on the depth 100
of the active layer
3.11 Diagram showing the effect of various depths of snow cover on the 100
underlying ground temperatures
3.12 Effect of mean snow depth in winter on ground temperature at 150 cm 101
soil depth on Plateau Mountain
3.13 The lower limit of permafrost in the Andes compared with the average 103
in the Northern Hemisphere
3.14 Altitude of the 0◦ C isotherm and some other geographical boundaries 104
plotted against latitude
3.15 Comparison of modeled temperature field on the Matterhorn with that 105
for Plateau Mountain (a former nunatak)
3.16 Section north-south across Alaska showing the position and thickness of 106
permafrost
3.17 Anatomy of cold air drainage west of Fort Nelson, B.C. 107
3.18 Temperatures of cold still cP air mass plotted against presence or 108
absence of cold air drainage at Fox Lake, Yukon
3.19 Results of placing a road culvert too low in an area of ice-wedges 113
3.20 Ground temperatures in the upper 12 m between 1996 and 1999 at 114
Marmot Basin #2 borehole, Jasper National Park
3.21 Temperature regimes of cold, freshwater lakes in North America 116
3.22 Energy budget and thermal offsets in lakes 117
3.23 The influence of small lakes on the ground temperatures conditions 117
3.24 Relationship of the distribution of glaciers to the mean annual freezing 120
and thawing indices and permafrost zones
3.25 Permafrost distribution in relation to the Columbia Icefield in Banff 121
National Park
3.26 Ground temperatures in the borehole through the Antarctic ice cap 121
beneath the Vostock station in Antarctica
4.1 Approximate distribution of permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere 124
4.2 Distribution of permafrost zones along the Eastern Cordillera of western 124
North America
4.3 Diagrammatic north-south transect of permafrost in Central Siberia and 125
in North America
4.4 Distribution and relationship of permafrost with non-frozen ground as 126
traced from south to north
4.5 Nomenclature for permafrost in China 127
xxvi List of figures

4.6 The current geocryological map of Russia (1:2,500.000) showing mean 128
annual ground temperatures
4.7 The “Probability of Permafrost map’’ of Bonnaventure et al., 2012 132
4.8 Airborne electrical resistivity traverse at the junction of the Yukon and 133
Porcupine rivers
4.9 Detail of the variability in ground temperature around Twelvemile Lake, 133
Alaska, based on airborne resistivity
4.10 Detailed changes in permafrost temperatures over short distances 134
4.11 Permafrost in Russia 136
4.12 Permafrost thickness under the Russian Platform underlain by the 137
Yakutian Shield
4.13 Distribution of ice content in permafrost areas 138
4.14 Stratigraphy of three typical boreholes on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 139
4.15 Oxygen isotope palaeotemperature record and geomagnetic polarity 141
timescale
4.16 Sketch showing various types of permafrost islands 143
4.17 Stability of permafrost in North America based on the distribution of 144
mean annual ground temperature
4.18 Vertical zones of permafrost in various climatic regions 144
5.1 Changes in dominant slope processes on slopes underlain by permafrost 146
in relation to mean annual air temperature and mean annual
precipitation
5.2 Distribution of individual cryogenic landforms with permafrost 147
zonation
5.3 An open frost crack on the Yamal Peninsula, Western Siberia 150
5.4 Polygons with raised marginal ridges and a lower centre, Prudhoe Bay, 151
Alaska
5.5 Distribution of thermal contraction cracking in peat and mineral 152
sediments with freezing and thawing indices
5.6 Diagram showing the development of ice-wedges 154
5.7 Ice-wedges of different ages cutting through part of the massive ice on 155
Herschel Island
5.8 The southern-most inactive ice wedge found at Yitulihe, China 156
5.9 “Shoulders’’ (upfolding of host) and “belts’’ (banding in ice) of the left 156
upper side of an ice-wedge
5.10 Diagram showing the difference in shape between epigenetic, syngenetic 157
and multi-stage ice-wedges
5.11 Multistage ice-wedge forming in peat at Yitulihe 158
5.12 Details of an active ice-wedge in Siberia 158
5.13 Relationship between soil and ice-wedges and mean annual ground 159
temperature for A, clay substrates and B, sand and gravel
5.14 Relationship between the distribution of active ice-wedges polygons and 160
freezing and thawing indices
5.15 Stresses and resultant changes that appear to have occurred in 162
ice-wedges on the Aldan River terraces shown diagrammatically
5.16 Irregular shapes of ice-wedges 162
5.17 Block diagram of ice-wedges forming a tessellated pattern 163
 List of figures xxvii

5.18 An area of ice-wedges on a pingo 163

5.19 Low centre polygons, Lena delta, Siberia 164
5.20 Ice-wedges over and around a peat bog 165
5.21 Typical arrangement of first, second order and third order ice-wedges 165
5.22 The oldest known ice-wedge in North America 166
5.23 Pleistocene sand tessellons west of Laramie, Wyoming 167
5.24 Intersecting sand sheets in Pleistocene sand wedges 168
5.25 Loess tessellon in bedrock at Yellow River village 171
5.26 Vertical structure in loess tessellons at Sandar, China 172
5.27 Rock tessellon in frost-shattered fissile sandstone 173
5.28 High centre polygons south of Prudhoe Bay, Alaska 174
5.29 Thermocast mounds in cleared larch forest in Siberia 174
5.30 Ice-wedge cast of younger Dryas age in Holland 175
5.31 Cracks filled with ice in Yamal peninsula, Western Siberia 176
5.32 Cross section of a soil wedge in Iceland 177
6.1 Active thawing icy cliff of a retrogressive thaw flow slide in the sea cliffs 179
on the Yamal peninsula, Russia
6.2 Aufeis, river Artuk, in summer 180
6.3 Distribution of buried massive icy beds in the Northern Hemisphere 181
6.4 Massive ice in the cliffs of Big Lyakhovsky Island, Siberia 182
6.5 Distribution of buried glacier ice and ice stagnation deposits in relation 184
to the ice margins and two retreat stages of the former Laurentide Ice
Sheet in North America
6.6 Dead stagnant ice at the terminus of the Martin River Glacier in 185
southern Alaska
6.7 Massive ice along the shoreline at Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories 188
6.8 Ice-wedge structures featuring vertical flow 194
6.9 Aufeis along a river floodplain in August in the North Fork Pass, 196
Dempster Highway, Yukon Territory
6.10 Relationship of aufeis occurrences to freezing and thawing indices 197
6.11 Relationship between accessible ice caves and freezing and thawing 199
indices
6.12 Speleothems and icy slopes where water has entered the roof of the cold 201
Werfen Ice Cave, south of Salzburg, Austria
6.13 Banded ice coating the walls of Werfen Cave, Austria 201
6.14 Plate-like ice crystals from the coating of the wall of Plateau Mountain 202
Ice Cave in 1978
6.15 Diagram showing the pattern of air movement and ice accumulation in 205
Candelaria Ice Cave, New Mexico
6.16 A. Temperatures measured at monthly intervals during 1974 at a series 206
of 10 stations in the Canyon Creek Ice Cave, Alberta, and B.,
comparison of the average air temperatures in the ice cave on specific
days with the mean monthly air temperature outside the cave
6.17 Plate-like crystals coating the walls of Plateau Mountain Ice Cave 208
6.18 Stalagmites developed on the floor of Plateau Mountain Ice Cave 209
6.19 Thaw pits left after the melting of large blocks of ice at Fairbanks, 210
Alaska
xxviii List of figures

6.20 Massive ice blocks in the ground along the Haul Road in Happy Valley, 211
Sagavairtok Quadrangle, Alaska
7.1 Spilt pingo, Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula 213
7.2 Solid pingo ice with occasional soil inclusions 216
7.3 Developing pingo scar, Mackenzie Delta 217
7.4 Hydrostatic (closed system) pingos growing on the floor of an alas near 218
Yakutsk, Siberia
7.5 Relationship of hydraulic and hydrostatic pingos to freezing and 219
thawing indices
7.6 A hydraulic pingo at Harigqiong, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 220
7.7 Hydraulic pingo with a depression in the top 221
7.8 Section through the Kunlun Pass pingo 222
7.9 The Yarmal crater 223
7.10 A flat-surfaced, open system pingo, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 223
7.11 Section in the pingo plateau shown in Figure 7.10 224
7.12 Massive injection ice in the pingo plateau 225
7.13 Seasonal frost mounds, North Fork Pass, Dempster Highway 226
7.14 Cross section of a seasonal frost mound 227
7.15 Icing blister and icing, Siberia 227
7.16 Drilling in a continental palsa and resulting core 228
7.17 Segregated ice in a lithalsa, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 228
7.18 General model of the evolution of a maritime palsa 232
7.19 Distribution of maritime and continental palsas with freezing and 234
thawing indices
7.20 Distribution of active lithalsas and continental palsas with freezing and 236
thawing indices
7.21 Palsas on a flood plain at Sheldrake River, Québec 237
7.22 Water content (% by volume) in a Manitoba palsa 238
7.23 Distribution of peaty mounds and lithalsas with mean annual air 239
temperature and precipitation in the Yukon Territory
7.24 A lithalsa beside Marsh Lake, Yukon Territory 241
7.25 Lithalsa at Kangqiang, Qinghai-Tibet Plateau 243
7.26 Margin of a peat plateau, Robert Campbell Highway 245
7.27 Comparison of the average height of floating palsas with the thickness 245
of the icy core
7.28 Discrepancy between the expansion of water on freezing and actual 246
elevation of peat plateaus
7.29 Comparison of moisture contents and dry density for fen and peat 246
plateau samples
7.30 Thickness of the thawing fringe in peat plateaus 247
7.31 Relationship between stable icy peat plateaus and freezing and thawing 249
indices
7.32 Cryogenic earth hummocks, Lake Hosvgul 250
7.33 Pika mounds, Tibetan Plateau 251
7.34 Textures of mineral sediment in oscillating earth hummocks 253
7.35 Cross section of an oscillating earth hummock, Mongolia 254
7.36 Radiocarbon ages of organic matter in oscillating earth hummocks 255
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
The others exchanged bulletins with him. He was, he said, as
rampageous as a long-legged hill two-year-old.
“Mr. Hollister!” Betty quavered.
The engineer was nowhere to be seen. They called, and no answer
came. Betty’s heart dropped like a plummet. She turned upon her
father anguished eyes. They begged him to do something. He
noticed that her cheeks were blanched, the color had ebbed from her
lips. His daughter’s distress touched him nearly. He could not stand
that stricken look.
“I’ll find him,” he promised.
Jammed between two trees, upside down, with one end sticking out
of the snow, they found the wagon bed at the bottom of the ravine.
Forbes spoke to Reed in a low voice, for his ears alone.
“Not a chance in fifty of findin’ him in all this snow, an’ if we do, he’ll
not be alive.”
“Yes,” agreed the ranchman. “If a fellow knew where to look. But no
telling where the snow carried him.”
“Might still be under the wagon bed, o’ course.”
“Might be.”
A low groan reached them. They listened. It came again, from under
the bed of the wagon apparently.
“He’s alive,” Clint called to Betty.
The drooping little figure crouched in the snow straightened as
though an electric current had been shot through it. The girl waded
toward them, eager, animate with vigor, pulsing with hope.
“Oh, Dad. Let’s hurry. Let’s get him out.”
Reed rapped the wagon bed with his knuckles. “How about it,
Hollister? Hurt much?”
“Knocked out,” a weak voice answered. “Guess I’m all right now. Arm
scraped a bit.”
The handle of a shovel stuck out of the snow like a post. Lon worked
it loose, tore the lower part free, and brought it to the bed. He began
to dig. Reed joined him, using his leather gauntlets as spades. It took
nearly half an hour to get Hollister out. He came up smiling.
“Cold berth down there,” he said by way of comment.
“You’re not really hurt, are you?” Betty said.
“Nothing to speak of. The edge of the sled scraped the skin from my
arm. Feels a bit fiery. How about the horses?”
Lon and his employer were already at work on them. Three of the
animals had pawed and kicked till they were back on their feet. The
men helped them back to the road, after unhitching them from the
sled. It was necessary to dig the fourth horse out of a deep drift into
which it had been flung.
Betty sat beside Hollister in the wagon bed on a pile of salvaged
blankets. She felt strangely weak and shaken. It was as though the
strength had been drained out of her by the emotional stress through
which she had passed. To be flung starkly against the chance, the
probability, that Tug was dead had been a terrible experience. The
shock had struck her instantly, vitally, with paralyzing force. She
leaned against the side of the bed laxly, trying to escape from the
harrowing intensity of her feeling. That she could suffer so acutely,
so profoundly, was a revelation to her.
What was the meaning of it? Why had the strength and energy
ebbed from her body as they do from one desperately wounded? It
was disturbing and perplexing. She had not been that way when her
father was shot. Could she find the answer to the last question in the
way she had put it? Desperately wounded! Had she, until hope
flowed back into her heart, been that?
“You’re ill,” she heard a concerned, far-away voice say. “It’s been too
much for you.”
She fought against a wave of faintness before she answered. “I
suppose so. It’s—silly of me. But I’m all right now.”
“It’s no joke to be buried in an avalanche. Hello! Look there!”
Her gaze followed the direction in which he was pointing, the edge of
the bluff above. Two men were looking down from the place where
the slide had started. It was too far to recognize them, but one
carried a rifle. They stood there for a minute or two before they
withdrew.
“Do you think—that they—?”
His grave eyes met hers. “I think they attempted murder, and, thank
God! failed.”
“Don’t say anything to Dad—not now,” she cautioned.
He nodded assent. “No.”
Reed had looked at his watch just before the avalanche had come
down on them. The time was then ten o’clock. It was past two before
the outfit was patched up sufficiently to travel again.
Not till they were safely out of the hills and gliding into Paradise
Valley did the cowman ask a question that had been in his mind for
some time.
“Why do you reckon that slide came down at the very moment we
were in the ravine?”
“I’ve been wonderin’ about that my own se’f. O’ course, it might just
a-happened thataway.” This from Forbes.
“It might, but it didn’t.”
“Meanin’?”
“There was an explosion just before the slide started. Some one
dynamited the comb to send it off the bluff.”
“Are you guessin’, Clint? Or do you know it for a fact?”
“I’m guessing, but I pretty near know it.”
Betty spoke up, quietly, unexpectedly. “So do Mr. Hollister and I.”
The two ranchmen pivoted simultaneously toward her. They waited,
only their eyes asking the girl what she meant.
“While you were digging, Mr. Hollister saw two men up there. He
pointed them out to me.”
“And why didn’t you show ’em to me?” demanded her father.
“What would you have done if I had?” she countered.
“Done! Gone up an’ found out who they were, though I could give a
good guess right now.”
“And do you think they would have let you come near? We could see
that one of them had a rifle. Maybe both had. They didn’t stay there
long, but I was afraid every second that you’d look up and see them.”
The foreman grunted appreciation of her sagacity. “Some head she’s
got, Clint. You’d sure have started after them birds, me like as not
trailin’ after you. An’ you’d sure never have got to ’em.”
The cowman made no comment on that. “He timed it mighty close.
Saw us coming, of course, an’ figured how long it would take us to
reach where we did. Good guessing. An old fox, I’ll say.”
“Same here.”
“He didn’t miss smashing us twenty seconds,” Hollister said. “As it
was, that’s no kind of snowstorm to be out in without an umbrella
and overshoes.”
Betty looked at him and smiled faintly. It was all very well to joke
about it now, but they had missed being killed by a hair’s breadth. It
made her sick to think of that cackling little demon up there on the
bluff plotting wholesale murder and almost succeeding in his plan.
She lived over again with a bleak sinking of the heart that five
minutes when she had not known whether Tug Hollister was dead or
alive.
If he had been killed! She knew herself now. Justin’s instinct of
selfishness had been right, after all. His niggardliness resolved itself
into self-protection. He had been fighting for his own. Even his
jealousy stood justified. She had talked largely of friendship, had
deceived herself into thinking that it was expression of herself she
craved. That was true in a sense, but the more immediate blinding
truth was that she loved Hollister. It had struck her like a bolt of
lightning.
She felt as helpless as a drowning man who has ceased struggling.
 CHAPTER XXXII
WITHOUT RHYME OR REASON

It was an upsetting thing, this that had happened to Betty, as

decided and far less explainable than a chemical reaction. It seemed
to her as though life had suddenly begun to move at tremendous
speed, without any warning to her whatever that Fate intended to
step on the accelerator. She was caught in the current of a stream of
emotion sweeping down in flood. Though it gave her a great thrill,
none the less it was devastating.
She wanted to escape, to be by herself behind a locked door, where
she could sit down, find herself again, and take stock of the situation.
To sit beside this stranger who had almost in the twinkling of an eye
become of amazing import to her, to feel unavoidable contact of
knee and elbow and shoulder, magnetic currents of attraction
flowing, was almost more than she could bear.
Betty talked, a little, because silence became too significant. She felt
a sense of danger, as though the personality, the individuality she
had always cherished, were being dissolved in the gulf where she
was sinking. But what she said, what Hollister replied, she could
never afterward remember.
Ruth ran to meet them with excited little screams of greeting. “Hoo-
hoo, Daddy! Hoo-hoo, Betty! Oh, goody, goody!”
Her sister was out of the sled and had the child in her arms almost
before the horses had stopped. “You darling darling!” she cried.
Buxom Bridget came to the door, all smiles of welcome. “And is it
your own self at last, Betty mavourneen? It’s glad we are to see you
this day.”
Betty hugged her and murmured a request. “Better fix up the south
bedroom for Mr. Hollister. He ought to rest at once. I’m kinda tired.”
“Sure, an’ I’ll look after him. Don’t you worry your head about that.
The room’s all ready.”
The girl’s desire to question herself had to be postponed. She had
reckoned without Ruth, who clung to her side until the child’s
bedtime. Pleading fatigue, Betty retired immediately after her sister.
She slipped into a négligée, let her dark hair down so that it fell a
rippling cascade over her shoulders, and looked into the glass of her
dressing-table that reflected a serious, lovely face of troubled youth.
A queer fancy moved in her that this girl who returned her gaze was
a stranger whom she was meeting for the first time.
Did love play such tricks as this? Did it steal away self-confidence
and leave one shy and gauche? She saw a pulse fluttering in the
brown slender throat. That was odd too. Her nerves usually were
steel-strong.
She combed her hair, braided it, and put on a crêpe-de-chine
nightgown. After the light was out and she was between the sheets,
her thoughts settled to more orderly sequence. She could always
think better in the dark, and just now she did not want to be
distracted by any physical evidences of the disorder into which she
had been flung.
How could she ever have thought of marrying Justin? She had spent
a good deal of time trying to decide calmly, without any agitation of
the blood, whether she was in love with him. It was no longer
necessary for her to puzzle over how a girl would know whether she
cared for a man. She knew. It was something in nature, altogether
outside of one’s self, that took hold of one without rhyme or reason
and played havoc with dispassionate tranquillity; a devouring flame
clean and pure, containing within itself all the potentialities of tragedy
—of life, of death, of laughter, love and tears.
And then, as is the way of healthy youth, in the midst of her
puzzlement she was asleep—and with no lapse of time, as though a
curtain had rolled up, she was opening her eyes to a new day.
If Tug had let himself count on long full hours with Betty in the
pleasant living-room, of books and ideas to be discussed together, of
casual words accented to meaning by tones of the voice and flashes
of the eye, he was predestined to disappointment. In the hill cabin
they had been alone together a good deal. She contrived to see that
this never occurred now. Except at table or in the evening with Ruth
and her father, he caught only glimpses of her as she moved about
her work.
Her eyes did not avoid his, but they did not meet in the frank, direct
way characteristic of her. She talked and laughed, joined in the give-
and-take of care-free conversation. To put into words the difference
was not easy. What he missed was the note of deep understanding
that had been between them, born less of a common point of view
than of a sympathy of feeling. Betty had definitely withdrawn into
herself.
Had he offended her? He could not think how, but he set himself to
find out. It took some contriving, for when one will and one will not a
private meeting is not easily arranged.
He was in the big family room, lying on a lounge in the sunshine of
the south window. Ruth had finished her lessons and was on the
floor busy with a pair of scissors and a page of magazine cutouts.
She babbled on, half to herself and half to him. They had become
great friends, and for the time she was his inseparable, perhaps
because he was the only one of the household not too busy to give
her all the attention she craved. Her talk, frank with the egotism of
childhood, was wholly of herself.
“I been awful bad to-day,” she confided cheerfully, almost proudly.
“Gettin’ in Bridget’s flour bin ’n’ ev’ryfing to make a cake ’n’ spillin’ a
crock o’ milk on the floor.”
“I’m sorry,” he said.
“Oh, I been the baddest,” she reflected aloud enjoyably. Then,
unhampered by any theory of self-determination, she placed the
blame placidly where it belonged, “When I said my prayers last night
I asked God to make me good, but he didn’t do it.”
Tug did not probe deeper into this interesting point of view, for Betty
came into the room with an armful of books and magazines.
“Thought from what you said at breakfast you’re hungry for reading,”
she said. “So I brought you some. If you’re like I am, you’ll want to
browse around a bit before you settle down. This Tarkington story is
good—if you haven’t read it. But maybe you like Conrad better.”
Through the open door came a delicious odor of fresh baking from
the kitchen. Out of the corner of his eye Tug took in Ruth. He sniffed
the spicy aroma and audibly sounded his lips.
“My! Cookies!” he murmured.
Instantly Ruth responded to the suggestion. She scrambled to her
feet and trotted out, intent on achieving cookies at once. Betty turned
to follow, but her guest stopped her with a question.
“What’s the Tarkington story about?”
“About a girl who’s hanging on to the outskirts of society and making
all kinds of pretenses—a pushing kind of a girl, who has to fib and
scheme to get along. But he makes her so human you like her and
feel sorry for her.”
“Sounds interesting.” He fired his broadside while he still held her
eyes. “Miss Reed, why am I being punished?”
Into her cheeks the color flowed. “Punished?” she murmured, taken
aback.
Betty had stopped by the table and half turned. He reached for the
umbrella he used as a support and hobbled toward her. “Yes. What
have I done?”
A turmoil of the blood began to boil in her. “The doctor said you were
to keep off your feet,” she evaded.
“Yes, and he said you were to entertain me—keep me interested.”
“That was when you were too sick to read. And I’m busy now. Lots of
work piled up while I was away.”
“Then you’re not offended about anything.”
She had picked up a book from the table and was reading the title.
Her eyes did not lift to his. “What could I be—offended about?” In
spite of the best she could do, her voice was a little tremulous.
“I don’t know. Are you?”
“No.” The lashes fluttered up. She had to meet his gaze or confess
that she was afraid to.
“You’re different. You—”
He stopped, struck dumb. A wild hope flamed up in him. What was it
the shy, soft eyes were telling him against her will? He stood on the
threshold of knowledge, his heart drumming fast.
During that moment of realization they were lost in each other’s
eyes. The soul of each was drawn as by a magnet out of the body to
that region beyond space where the spirits of lovers are fused.
Betty’s hands lifted ever so slightly in a gesture of ultimate and
passionate surrender to this force which had taken hold of her so
completely.
Then, with no conscious volition on the part of either, they were in
each other’s arms, swept there by a rising tide of emotion that
drowned thought.
 CHAPTER XXXIII
THE BLUEBIRD ALIGHTS AND THEN TAKES
WING

Tug pushed Betty from him. Out of a full tide of feeling he came to
consciousness of what he was doing.
“I can’t. I can’t,” he whispered hoarsely.
She understood only that something in his mind threatened their
happiness. Her eyes clung to his. She waited, breathless, still under
the spell of their great moment.
“Can’t what?” at last she murmured.
“Can’t ... marry you.” He struggled for expression, visibly in anguish.
“I’m ... outside the pale.”
“How—outside the pale?”
“I’ve made it impossible. We met too late.”
“You’re not—married?”
“No. I’m ... I’m—” He stuck, and started again. “You know. My vice.”
It took her a moment to remember what it was. To her it was
something done with ages ago in that pre-millennial past before they
had found each other. She found no conceivable relationship
between it and this miracle which had befallen them.
“But—I don’t understand. You’re not—”
She flashed a star-eyed, wordless question at him, born of a swift
and panicky fear.
“No. I haven’t touched it—not since I went into the hills. But—I
might.”
“What nonsense! Of course, you won’t.”
“How do I know?”
“It’s too silly to think about. Why should you?”
“It’s not a matter of reason. I tried to stop before, and I couldn’t.”
“But you stopped this time.”
“Yes. I haven’t had the headaches. Suppose they began again.
They’re fierce—as though the top of my head were being sawed off.
If they came back—what then? How do I know I wouldn’t turn to the
drug for relief?”
“They won’t come back.”
“But if they did?”
She gave him both her hands. There were gifts in her eyes—of faith,
of splendid scorn for the vice he had trodden underfoot, of faith
profound and sure. “If they do come back, dear, we’ll fight them
together.”
He was touched, deeply. There was a smirr of mist obscuring his
vision. Her high sweet courage took him by the throat. “That’s like
you. I couldn’t pay you a better compliment if I hunted the world over
for one. But I can’t let you in for the possibility of such a thing. I’d be
a rotten cad to do it. I’ve got to buck it through alone. That’s the price
I’ve got to pay.”
“The price for what?”
“For having been a weakling: for having yielded to it before.”
“You never were a weakling,” she protested indignantly. “You weren’t
responsible. It was nothing but an effect of your wounds. The doctors
gave it to you because you had to have it. You used it to dull the
horrible pain. When the pain stopped and you were cured, you quit
taking it. That’s all there is to it.”
He smiled ruefully, though he was deadly in earnest. “You make it
sound as simple as a proposition in geometry. But I’m afraid, dear, it
isn’t as easily disposed of as that. I started to take it for my
headaches, but I kept on taking it regularly whether I needed it for
the pain or not. I was a drug victim. No use dodging that. It’s the
truth.”
“Well, say you were. You’re not now. You never will be again. I’d—I’d
stake my head on it.”
“Yes. Because you are you. And your faith would help me—
tremendously. But I know the horrible power of the thing. It’s an
obsession. When the craving was on me, it was there every second.
I found myself looking for all sorts of plausible excuses to give way.”
“It hadn’t any real power. You’ve proved that by breaking away from
it.”
“I’ve regained my health from the hills and from my work. That
stopped the trouble with my head. But how do I know it has stopped
permanently?”
Wise beyond her years, she smiled tenderly. “You mentioned faith a
minute ago. It’s true. We have to live by that. A thousand times a day
we depend on it. We rely on the foundations of the house not to
crumble and let it bury us. I never ride a horse without assuming that
it won’t kick me. We have to have the courage of our hopes, don’t
we?”
“For ourselves, yes. But we ought not to invite those we love into the
house unless we’re sure of the foundations.”
“I’m sure enough. And, anyhow, that’s a poor cold sort of philosophy.
I want to be where you are.” The slim, straight figure, the dusky,
gallant little head, the eyes so luminous and quick, reproached with
their eagerness his prudent caution. She offered him the greatest gift
in the world, and he hung back with ifs and buts.
There was in him something that held at bay what he wanted more
than anything else on earth. He could not brush aside hesitations
with her magnificent scorn. He had lost the right to do it. His
generosity would be at her expense.
“If you knew, dear, how much I want you. If you knew! But I’ve got to
think of you, to protect you from myself. Oh, Betty, why didn’t I meet
you two years ago?” His voice was poignant as a wail.
“You didn’t. But you’ve met me now. If you really want me—well,
here I am.”
“Yes, you’re there, the sweetest girl ever God made—and I’m here a
thousand miles away from you.”
“Not unless you think so, Tug,” she answered softly, her dusky eyes
inviting him. “You’ve made me love you. What are you going to do
with me?”
“I’m going to see you get the squarest deal I can give you, no matter
what it costs.”
“Costs you or me?”
The sound in his throat was almost a groan. “Dear heart, I’m torn in
two,” he told her.
“Don’t be, Tug.” Her tender eyes and wistfully smiling lips were very
close to him. “It’s all right. I’m just as sure.”
He shook his head. “I’ve got to play the game,” he said miserably.
Betty talked, pleaded, argued with him, but his point of view
remained unchanged.
A reaction of irritation swept her. It was in part offended modesty.
She had offered herself, repeatedly, and he would not have her. How
did she know that he was giving the true reason? It might be only a
tactful way of getting rid of her.
“Play it then,” she replied curtly, and she walked out of the room
without another look at him.
He was astounded, shocked. He had been to blame, of course, in
ever letting his love leap out and surprise them. Probably he had not
made clear to her the obligation that bound him not to let her tie up
her life with his. He must see her at once and make her understand.
But this he could not do. A note dispatched by Ruth brought back the
verbal message that she was busy. At supper Betty did not appear.
The specious plea was that she had a headache. Nor was she at
breakfast. From Bridget he gathered that she had gone to the
Quarter Circle D E and would stay there several days.
“Lookin’ after some fencing,” the housekeeper explained. “That gir-
rl’s a wonder if iver there was one.”
Tug agreed to that, but it was in his mind that the fencing would have
had to wait if affairs had not come to a crisis between him and Betty.
He had no intention of keeping her from her home. Over the
telephone he made arrangements to stay at the Wild Horse House.
Clint, perplexed and a little disturbed in mind, drove him to town.
Most of the way they covered in silence. Just before they reached
the village, Reed came to what was in his mind.
“You an’ Betty had any trouble, Hollister?”
The younger man considered this a moment. “No trouble; that is, not
exactly trouble.”
“She’s high-headed,” her father said, rather by way of explanation
than apology. “But she’s the salt of the earth. Don’t you make any
mistake about that.”
“I wouldn’t be likely to,” his guest said quietly. “She’s the finest girl I
ever met.”
The cowman looked quickly at him. “Did she go to the Quarter Circle
D E because of anything that took place between you an’ her?”
“I think so.” He added a moment later an explanation: “I let her see
how much I thought of her. It slipped out. I hadn’t meant to.”
Reed was still puzzled. He knew his daughter liked the young fellow
by his side. “Did that make her mad?” he asked.
“No. I found out she cared for me.”
“You mean—?”
“Yes.” The face of the engineer flushed. “It was a complete surprise
to me. I had thought my feelings wouldn’t matter because she would
never find out about them. When she did—and told me that she—
cared for me, I had to tell her where I stand.”
“Just where do you stand?”
“I can’t marry. You must know why.”
Clint flicked the whip and the young team speeded. When he had
steadied them to a more sedate pace, he spoke. “I reckon I do. But
—you’ve given it up, haven’t you?”
“Yes.” He qualified the affirmative. “I’m not the first man who thought
he’d given it up and hadn’t.”
“Got doubts about it, have you?”
“No. I think I’m done with the cursed stuff. But how do I know?” Tug
went into details as to the nature of the disease. He finished with a
sentence that was almost a cry. “I’d rather see her dead than married
to a victim of that habit.”
“What did Betty say to that?”
“What I’d expect her to say. She wouldn’t believe there was any
danger. Wouldn’t have it for a minute. You know how generous she
is. Then, when I insisted on it, she seemed to think it was an excuse
and walked out of the room. I haven’t seen her since. She wouldn’t
let me have a chance.”
“I don’t see as there’s much you could say—unless you’re aimin’ to
renig.” Reed’s voice took on a trace of resentment. “Seems to me,
young fellow, it was up to you not to let things get as far as they did
between you an’ Betty. That wasn’t hardly a square deal for her. You
get her to tell you how she feels to you, an’ then you turn her down. I
don’t like that a-tall.”
Tug did not try to defend himself. “That’s one way of looking at it. I
ought never to have come to the house,” he said with humility.
“I wish you hadn’t. But wishing don’t get us anywhere. Point is, what
are we going to do about it?”
“I don’t see anything to do. I’d take the first train out if it would help
any,” Hollister replied despondently.
“Don’t you go. I’ll have a talk with her an’ see how she feels first.”
Hollister promised not to leave until he had heard from Reed.
 CHAPTER XXXIV
BORN THAT WAY

It was impossible for Betty to escape the emotions that flooded her,
but she was the last girl to sit down and accept defeat with folded
hands. There was in her a certain vigor of the spirit that craved
expression, that held her head up in the face of disaster.
At the Quarter Circle D E she was so briskly businesslike that none
of the men would have guessed that she was passing through a
crisis. Except for moments of abstraction, she gave no evidence of
the waves of emotion that inundated her while she was giving orders
about the fencing of the northwest forty or the moving of the pigpens.
When she was alone, it was worse. Her longing for Hollister became
acute. If she could see him, talk with him, his point of view would be
changed. New arguments marshaled themselves in her mind. It was
ridiculous to suppose that a man’s past—one not of his own
choosing, but forced on him—could determine his future so greatly
as to make happiness impossible. She would not believe it. Every
instinct of her virile young personality rebelled against the
acceptance of such a law.
Tug’s persistence in renouncing joy had wounded her vanity. But at
bottom she did not doubt him. He had stood out because he thought
it right, not because he did not love her. In spite of her distress of
mind, she was not quite unhappy. A warm hope nestled in her
bosom. She loved and was loved. The barrier between them would
be torn down. Again they would be fused into that oneness which for
a blessed ten minutes had absorbed them.
Her father drove over in the rattletrap car. Ostensibly he had come to
discuss with her plans for fertilization and crops of the Quarter Circle
D E for the coming season.
“I took Hollister to town this morning. He wouldn’t stay any longer,”
Reed presently mentioned, as though casually.
“Oh! Why wouldn’t he stay?” Betty was rather proud of the
indifference she contrived to convey in her voice.
“Said he didn’t want to keep you away from home.”
“Was he keeping me away?” she asked.
“Seemed to think so. Wasn’t he?”
“I see you know all about it, Dad. What did he tell you?”
“I asked him point-blank what the trouble was between you and him.
He told me.”
A faint crimson streamed into her cheeks. “What did he say it was?”
“He’s afraid. Not for himself, but for you.”
“I think that’s awf’ly silly of him.”
“I’m not so sure about that, Bettykins. If there’s any doubt whatever,
he’d better wait till he’s certain.” He let his arm fall across her
shoulders with a gentleness she knew to be a caress. “Have you
found the man you want, dear? Sure about it?”
She smiled ruefully. “I’m sure enough, Dad. He’s the one that seems
in doubt.” To this she added a reply to a sentence earlier in his
period. “He didn’t say anything to me about waiting. His ‘No, thank
you,’ was quite definite, I thought.”
Clint’s wrath began to simmer. “If he’s got a notion that he can take
or leave you as he pleases—”
Betty put a hand on his arm. “Please, Dad. I don’t mean what I said.
It’s not fair to him. He doesn’t think that at all.”
“There’s no man in the Rockies good enough for you—”
“Are you taking in enough territory?” she teased, her face bubbling to
mirth. “I don’t even know whether you’re including Denver. Justin
came from there, and he’s too good for me.”
“Who says he’s too good?”
“Too perfect, then. I couldn’t live up to him. Never in the world.” Her
eyes fixed on something in the distance. She watched for a moment
or two. “Talking about angels, Dad. There’s the flutter of his engine
fan.”
Reed turned.
Merrick was killing the engine of his runabout. He came across to
them, ruddy, strong, well-kept. Every stride expressed the self-reliant
and complacent quality of his force.
The girl’s heart beat faster. She had not seen him since that
moment, more than two weeks ago, when they had parted in anger.
Her resentment against him had long since died. He had not been to
blame because they were incompatible in point of view and
temperament. It was characteristic of her that she had written to ask
him to forgive her if she had in any way done him a wrong. If she
could, she wanted to keep him for a friend.
He shook hands with them. Reed asked about the work.
“We’ve finished the tunnel and are laying the line of the main canal
between it and the draw where it runs into Elk Creek Cañon. Soon
as the ground is thawed out, I’ll have dirt flying on it,” the engineer
said.
“Lots of water in the dam?” asked the cowman.
“Full up. The mild weather this last week has raised it a lot. There’s a
great deal of snow in the hills. We’ll have no difficulty about a
sufficient supply.”
“Good. You’ve got old Jake Prowers beat.”
“Justin has done a big thing for this part of the country. That’s more
important than beating Mr. Prowers,” Betty said.
“Yes,” agreed Merrick impersonally. “By the way, the old fellow is still
nursing his fancied injuries. He was hanging around the dam
yesterday. I warned him off.”
“Say anything?” asked Clint.