Remarks on the origin of palsa frost mounds
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.26485/BP/1986/31/12Keywords:
permafrost landforms, periglacial conditions, ice hydrolaccolithAbstract
Frost mounds known by the name of „palsas" can be found in subarctic regions, in zones of discontinuous permafrost. This fact is proof of the general dependence of these forms on the climate. The local environmental conditions - that is, the presence of an isolating permafrost layer (peat, snow) are precise determinants of the places in which they occur.
Palsas are thus surface forms of permafrost and are dependent on the physical conditions of this surface. In this they differ from pingo mounds which originate and develop in dependence on the conditions prevailing inside the permafrost layer or even below it (subpermafrost water).
Palsas are subject to cyclical aggradation and degradation, their outward appearance being thus dependent on the particular phase they undergo at a given moment. Palsa-like mounds to be found in the arctic region as well as in the zone of continuous permafrost are also surface forms, not internal permafrost ones, but their actual genesis remains hitherto unknown.
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