Geology Reference
In-Depth Information
paleo-geographic reconstruction and global regionalization (Büdel, 1944, 1953; Cailleux,
1942; Dylik 1953, 1956; Edelman et al., 1936; Poser, 1948; Troll, 1944). From the privileged
viewpoint of history, it is now easy to see how the concept of a “periglacial environment”
or a “morpho-climatic zone” (Büdel, 1951, 1977; Peltier, 1950) became popular. In later
years, a trend towards study of the northern polar region can be discerned (Büdel 1963;
Jahn 1975; Tricart and Cailleux 1967).
The early 1970s witnessed a dramatic increase in awareness of the high latitudes in
North America and the USSR. This was partly for geopolitical reasons but also the result
of the search for natural resources, notably oil and gas. An increase in geotechnical engi-
neering prompted an upsurge in the study of permafrost-related processes, and permafrost
science, or geocryology, became a priority research discipline in the United States, Canada,
Scandinavia, and the USSR. Often, there was substantial government involvement. As a
result, traditional Quaternary-oriented periglacial studies became overshadowed. Texts
by A. Jahn (1975), H. M. French (1976a), and A. L. Washburn (1979) document the
changes in periglacial geomorphology in this period. Others, by V. A. Kudryavtsev (1978)
and the Desert Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Science (Academica Sinica,
1975), summarize Soviet and Chinese advances.
Over the last 40 years, a series of international permafrost conferences, held fi rst in
1963 and then at fi ve-year intervals since 1973, progressively record increasing inter-
national collaboration in periglacial geomorphology. Of special signifi cance was the for-
mation of the International Permafrost Association (IPA) in 1983. Several summaries of
periglacial geomorphology during this period are available (Pissart, 1990, Thorn, 1992,
Barsch, 1993).
The last 10 years have seen further growth. An international peer-reviewed journal,
Permafrost and Periglacial Processes
, was launched in 1990. A Chinese journal,
Bing-
chuan Dongtu
(
Journal of Glaciology and Geocryology
), fi rst published in 1978 by the
newly-formed Lanzhou Institute of Glaciology and Geocryology of the Chinese Academy
of Sciences, now publishes four issues a year as part of a reorganized Cold and Arid
Regions Environmental and Engineering Research Institute (CAREERI). In Russia, an
international journal,
Earth Cryosphere
, was launched in 1997 by the Institute of Earth's
Cryosphere (Tyumen), Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. Since 1988, the
IPA has published an annual newsletter,
Frozen Ground
, and in 1993 it created a Perigla-
cial Working Group that coordinated with an IGU Periglacial Commission that continued
to be active from 1980 until fi nal dissolution in 2004.
Other international journals that record advances in periglacial geomorphology include
Earth Surface Processes and Landforms
,
Journal of Quaternary Science
,
Geografi ska
Annaler
,
Geomorphology
,
Progress in Physical Geography
,
Polar Geography
,
Arctic
, and
Arctic, Antarctic and Alpine Research
.
1.4. THE PERIGLACIAL DOMAIN
The periglacial domain refers to the global extent of the so-called periglacial zone. Based
upon the spatial association of certain microforms and their climatic threshold values,
several different periglacial zones can be recognized (Figure 1.5). They occur not only as
tundra zones in the high latitudes, as defi ned by Lozinski's concept, but also as forested
zones south of treeline and in the high-altitude (i.e. alpine) regions of temperature lati-
tudes. They include (a) polar desert and semi-desert (frost-debris zones) of the High
Arctic, (b) tundra, (c) boreal forest, and (d) sub-arctic areas of either maritime or conti-
nental nature. Not included in Figure 1.5 is the vast high-elevation Qinghai-Xizang (Tibet)
