GEOS 616
PERMAFROST

Instructor: Vladimir Romanovsky

Week 1

Basic definitions; perennially and seasonally frozen ground. Ice in the ground; periglacial forms of the ground surface.

Week 2
	
Permafrost as a planetary event; horizontal and vertical continuity; geographical distribution; permafrost age; permafrost dynamics during the last glaciation.

Week 3
	
Global change and permafrost dynamics.

Week 4
	
Present knowledge of subsea permafrost distribution and evolution; gas hydrates and permafrost dynamics.	

Week 5
	
Surface energy balance and permafrost temperatures; a buffer layer model; heat transfer in the ground.

Week 6	The ground temperature regime; the heat conduction equation; thermal properties of soils; geothermal heat flow and permafrost thickness; seasonal temperature variations.	

Week 7
	
Ground freezing and thawing, the Stephan problem; approximate solutions to the Stephan problem.

Week 8

Numerical solutions to the Stephan problem; unfrozen water in the frozen active layer and permafrost.
	
Week 9

	Laboratory and field data on unfrozen water dynamics; numerical models that incorporate the unfrozen water dynamics; role of unfrozen water in the active layer and permafrost.	

Week 10

	
Temperature waves; periodically steady state temperature regime; temperature waves in multi-layered media; application to permafrost studies.	

Week 11
	
Effect of snow and vegetation covers on the active layer and permafrost temperature regime.

     Week 12	
Thermal offset in the active layer; methods to calculate the thermal offset.

   Week 13 
	
Field and laboratory methods for soil temperature and moisture measurements; permafrost temperature monitoring; geophysical methods in permafrost investigations.	

   Week 14 
	
Hydrology and hydrogeology of frozen ground; permafrost engineering.

   Week 15	
Final Exam

Grading Policy:	Exam			40%
		Course Project		30%
Homework		20%
		Presentations		10%