Reticulate Ice Veins in Permafrost, Northern Canada

Abstract

A reticulate ice vein network is of common occurrence in many lake and marine clays, glacial tills, and mudflow deposits in permafrost areas of northern Canada. The ice vein network may grade downward into high ice content soils at depth. Field observations suggest that the reticulate ice veins grew in vertical and horizontal shrinkage cracks, with much of the water being derived from the adjacent clay, in a semiclosed freezing system, rather than from an upward migration of water in an open system. The three-dimensional geometry of the ice vein network is a factor to be considered in drill hole sampling, thaw–consolidation studies, and differential settlement estimates.