• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.30 no.10
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• pp.67-80
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• 2014

The thickness of permafrost in Eastern Siberia is from 200 to 500 meters. The seasonally frozen layer can vary from 0 to 4m depending on ground temperature and its location. The shear wave velocity varies from 80m/s in summer to 1500m/s in winter depending on soil type. When melted, large impedence will occur due to the difference between the shear wave velocity of seasonally frozen soil and that of permafrost layer. Large displacement may occur at the boundary of the melted and the frozen layer, and this phenomenon should be considered in a seismic design. In this research, one-dimensional equivalent linear analyses were performed to investigate the effects of the seasonally frozen layer on ground amplification characteristics. Soil profiles of Yakutsk and Chara in Eastern Siberia were selected from geotechnical reports. 20 recorded ground motions were used to evaluate the effect of input motions. As the thickness of seasonally frozen layer and the difference in the shear wave velocity increases, the amplification is shown to increase. Peat, very soft organic soil widely distributed throughout Eastern Siberia, is shown to cause significant ground motion amplification. It is therefore recommended to account for its influence on propagated motion.

• Journal of Climate Change Research
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.249-256
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• 2014

Permafrost is frozen soil below $0^{\circ}C$ for two or more years. Surface of permafrost is called as active layer that seasonally thaws during the summer. Although the thawing of permafrost may deepen the active layer and consequently increase the microbial activity, the microbial community structure in this habitat has not yet been well described. In this study, we presented bacterial and archaeal diversity in the active layer soil from Resolute, Canada using pyrosequencing analysis. The soil sample was collected from the surface of the marsh covered with moss and Carex. A total of 7,796 bacterial reads for 40 phyla and 245 archaeal reads for 4 phyla were collected, reflecting the high diversity of bacteria. Predominant bacterial groups were Proteobacteria (37.7%) and Bacteroidetes (30.0%) in this study. Major groups in Archaea were Euryarchaeota (51.4%) and Thaumarchaeota (46.1%). Both methane producing archaea and consuming bacteria were detected in this study. Although it might be difficult to characterize microbial community with only one sample, it could be used for the basis of assessing the relative importance of the specific groups with a high resolution on the bacterial and archaeal community in this habitat.