Periglacial Landforms and

Processes
Periglacial areas are those that experience a cold climate, with
intense frost action and the development of permafrost.
Permafrost is permanently frozen ground.
There are three main types:

Continuous
permafrost –
little thawing
even in
summer Sporadic
permafrost –
Discontinuous permafrost only
permafrost – in isolated spots
breaks in
permafrost
around water
eg lakes

Areas of permafrost in
North America
Ground Ice: A key
characteristic of
permafrost is the
presence of ice in the
upper tens of meters of
the permafrost. This ice
occurs in many forms
and often in large
masses of relatively
pure ice. The
widespread presence of
ice in permafrost
creates challenges for
construction since when
the ice melts the ground
becomes unstable
Buildings constructed in areas affected by permafrost need to be insulated from
the ground. Tried and tested techniques include placing the building on wooden
piles. This photograph shows a corner of the SAS/Radison Hotel in
Longyearbyen, Svalbard. Although the area between the piles is boarded off, it
is maintained at air temperature as the building above is fully insulated.
Most services, such as water and sewerage, need to be insulated both from
permafrost and sub-freezing winter temperatures. They are commonly
placed on wooden stilts above ground level. Thickly insulated plastic piping
replaces the old metal conduit. Some have a heating element running
through them.
Periglacial Processes: Weathering
Locations that have a periglacial environment are characterized by
the presence of large quantities of angular, fractured rock. The
quantity of the deposits indicates that the frost weathering process
operates over and over again in repeated cycles of freeze-thaw.

This is a close-up of frost-

shattered bedrock, consisting
of angular blocks of granite.
Extensive areas of blocks are
called felsenmeer. The
shattering has occurred in
permafrost terrain, near
treeline.
Northern Manitoba, Canada
Nivation takes place beneath patches of snow in hollows, particularly on
north- and east-facing slopes.
Freeze-thaw action operating under the snow causes the underlying rock to
disintegrate.
Over some period of time, this leads to the formation of nivation hollows
which, when enlarged, can be the beginnings of a corrie.

North
Nivation facing
hollow snow
patches
Solifluction is the slow, downslope creep
of fine-textured soils.
Solifluction leads to the formation of lobate-
shaped debris masses or solifluction lobes.
Frost creep is the slow downslope movement of soil and sediment because of
frost heaving and thawing. The process begins with the freezing of the
ground surface elevating particles at right angles to the slope. The particles
are elevated because cold temperatures causes water in between particles to
freeze and expand.
In the warm season,
thawing causes the ice
to convert back to liquid
water and the
contracting surface
drops the particles in
elevation. This drop,
however, is influenced
by gravity causing the
particle to move slightly
downslope.
Frost-sorting on slopes results in stone stripes. In this example the scree slope
provides a steady supply of angular rock fragments, which are then sorted as
the material is carried down to the wetter more muddy ground below.
Frost-sorting on level stony
ground produces stone
circles, such as this one in
Svalbard. The outside
diameter is approximately
1m.
Frost-sorting in areas where snow-melt is trapped and mobilises mud-rich
glacial sediment, yields stone polygons as here in northwestern
Spitsbergen. The stone ridges make for firm walking, but boots can be
overtopped if they sink into the fine material in the middle of the polygon.
Ice
Wedges
Closed-system pingos are found most commonly in areas of low-lying,
poorly drained terrain in regions of continuous permafrost. In such
regions, bodies of unfrozen ground exist beneath the larger water bodies
such as lakes and rivers. When a lake drains newly exposed sediments of
the lake-bed cool, and permafrost begins to grow in this unfrozen soil. As
the freezing and heaving continues over time a mound is formed which
continues to grow. The largest closed-system pingos known are about 50-
m high.
 Exposed ice
core of an
eroded pingo.

Collapsed
pingo

Closed pingo
Summary - Features produced by periglacial processes