• Economic and Environmental Geology
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• v.55 no.6
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• pp.727-736
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• 2022

Ice wedges are subsurface ice mass structures that formed mainly by freezing precipitation with airborne dust and surrounding soil particles flowed through the active layer into the cracks growing by repeating thermal contractions in the deeper permafrost layer over time. These ice masses characteristically contain high concentrations of solutes and solids. Because of their unique properties and distribution, the possibility of harnessing ice wedges as an alternative archive for reconstructing paleoclimate and paleoenvironment has been recently suggested despite limited studies. It is imperative to preserve the physicochemical properties of the ice wedge (e.g., solute concentration, mineral particles) without any potential alteration to use it as a proxy for reconstructing the paleo-information. Thawing the ice wedge samples is prerequisite for the assessment of their physicochemical properties, during which the paleo-information could be unintentionally altered by any methodological artifact. This study examined the effect of thawing conditions and procedures on the physicochemical properties of solutes and solid particles in ice wedge samples collected from Cyuie, East Siberia. Four different thawing conditions with varying temperatures (4 and 23℃) and oxygen exposures (oxic and anoxic) for the ice wedge sample treatment were examined. Ice wedge samples thawed at 4℃ under anoxic conditions, wherein biological activity and oxidation were kept to a minimum, were set as the standard thawing conditions to which the effects of temperature and oxygen were compared. The results indicate that temperature and oxygen exposure have negligible effects on the physicochemical characteristics of the solid particles. However, the chemical features of the solution (e.g., pH, electric conductivity, alkalinity, and concentration of major cations and trace elements) at 4℃ under oxic conditions were considerably altered, compared to those measured under the standard thawing conditions. This study shows that the thawing condition of ice wedge samples can affect their chemical features and thereby the geochemical information therein for the reconstruction of the paleoclimate and/or paleoenvironment.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.14 no.7
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• pp.19-29
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• 2013

Analysis via classical soil mechanics theory is either ineffective or inappropriate for fully describing stress distribution or failure conditions in cold regions, since mechanical properties of soils in cold regions are different from those reported in the classical soil mechanics theory. Therefore, collecting and analyzing technical data, and systematic and specialized research for cold regions are required for design and construction of the structure in cold regions. Freezing and thawing repeat in active layer of permafrost region, and a loading condition affecting the structure changes. Therefore, the reliable analysis of mechanical properties of frozen soils according to various conditions is prerequisite for design and construction of the structure in cold regions, since mechanical properties of frozen soils are sensitive to temperature condition, water content, grain size, relative density, and loading rate. In this research, the direct shear apparatus which operates at 30 degrees below zero and large-scaled low temperature chamber are used for evaluating shear strength characteristics of frozen soils. Weathered granite soil is used to analyzed the shear strength characteristics with varying freezing temperature condition, vertical confining pressure, relative density, and water content. This research shows that the shear strength of weathered granite soil is sensitively affected by various conditions such as freezing temperature conditions, normal stresses, relative densities, and water contents.