Method

The following method was used in digging most all of the soil pits: In the area to be excavated (1m × 1m × .5m), the surface material was scrapped off and placed on a 2m square polythene tarpaulin. The underlying soil was then dug out and placed on another 2m square polythene tarpaulin. Loose soil material was dug to a depth of one metre or the top of the ice-cemented soil which ever was the shallowest. The top of the ice-cemented material was sampled by using a gasoline powered hammer drill to excavate fist-sized samples. After the soil profile and permafrost were described and sampled, all material from the respective polythene tarpaulins was replaced. The ground surface was raked and swept to restore as much as possible of the original appearance. Analyses of the samples will include; thinsections of soil clods as well as major cation and anion chemistry of soluble salts in the soils and ice from the permafrost. These methods were used to achieve the three aims listed above.

The term "ground ice" refers to all types of ice formed in freezing and frozen ground (Permafrost Subcommittee, 1988 p 46). Permafrost refers to the permanently frozen (<0° C) condition and includes both dry and wet (ice) materials. Subsurface conditions in the Dry Valleys are generally different from those in arctic and alpine environments in that there is usually 30 to 60 cm of dry frozen sediments above ice cemented sediments. However, because most workers think of permafrost as ice cemented, the term permafrost in this report will include only the ice cemented materials.