I. What is Permafrost?

Deconstructing Permanence Distribution across the Arctic Formation in Svalbard Relevance to Landscape Architecture

BOREAS Holocenepermafrosthistoryandcryostratigraphy,Svalbard 427

Fig.2. ExamplesofcryostructuresfrompermafrostinAdventdalen.Blackisice(exceptinA,whereinclusionsofvisibleiceareabsent,andinI wheretheiceislight-colouredandthebrowncolourissediment),andshadesofgreyandbrownaresedimentororganics.A.Poreice(coreL2).B. Microlenticular(coreL1).C.Organic-matrix(coreL3).D.Lenticular(withreticulate,braidedandsuspended,coreA2b).E.Lenticular(with Nine examples of permafrosts cryostructure found in Adventdalen. braidedandcrustal,coreW1).F.Lenticular(withreticulatetosuspendedandcrustal,coreS1).G.Crustal(seearrow)andlenticular(withreticulate tosuspended)inthefinermatrix(coreA2b).H.Suspended(ataxitic)(coreL3).I.Massivelayeredice(coreL2).Notethatforsimplification,sections withtransitionallenticularwithothertypesofcryostructureswereclassifiedas ‘lenticularcryostructure’ inthisstudy.[Colourfigurecanbeviewed Stefanie Cable, Bo Elberling, and Aart Kroon, atwww.boreas.dk] Examples of cryostructures from permafrost in Adventdalen, image, in “Holocene permafrost history and cryostratigraphy in the High-Arctic Adventdalen Valley, central Svalbard,” 2018.

15023885, 2018, 2, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/bor.12286 by Uit The Arctic University Of, Wile y Online Library on [07/11/2022]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License

(references) 1. Stuart A. Harris et al. Geocryology: Characteristics and Use of Frozen Ground and Permafrost Landforms, (London: Taylor and Francis Group, 2018): 3. 2. Yuri Shur et al. “Permafrost,” in Singh V.P, Sing P., Haritashya, Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers (Dordrecht: Springer, 2011): 841. 3. Ibid. 4. Celine Granjou, and Juan Francisco Salazar. “The Stuff of Soil: Belowground Agency in the Making of Future Climates.” Nature and Culture 14 no.1 (2019): 39-60. 5. Jane Bennett. Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010).

(notes) The following chapters unpack this approach to permafrost through literature exploring the agency of the underground, spatial analysis of underground permafrost landscapes, and a compilation of permafrost conditions (their materials, duration, uses, depths...) present in Longyearbyen. This research and approach to understanding frozen ground inspired and will provide the structure for my final design proposal for the afterlife of Mine #7.

Deconstructing Permanence

In comparison to other soil or ground types, permafrost is always defined through its temperature state. The most common definition within the Western context is that permafrost is soil, bedrock, or other earth materials, whose temperature remains below 0°C for at least 2 consecutive years.1 The Russian definition on the other hand maintains that permafrost is simply “soil which remains frozen (has ice as its component) for years.”2

In this way: “Permafrost is synonymous with perennially cryotic ground; it is defined on the basis of temperature. It is not necessarily frozen, because the freezing point of included water may be depressed several degrees below 0°C; moisture in the form of ice may or may not be present. In other words, perennially frozen ground is permafrost, but not all permafrost is perennially frozen.”3

This is all to say that a specific picture of permafrost is difficult to capture, as there exists no singular state, and it is in fact far from permanent (as its name denotes). Within this diploma, I have therefore used the more nuanced definition of permafrost according to the landscape architect Leena Cho, in her text Permafrost Politics: Toward a Relational Materiality and Design of Arctic Ground:

Permafrost [is a] geo- and biosocial strata where various things across earth’s time—including ancient microbes, hydrocarbons, roots, toxins, scientific probes and building foundations—have been accumulated, separated and reconstituted.

These strata are formed by, or in reaction to, myriad thermal constitutions wherein a slight offset from a freezing temperature produces vastly different material realities and future climates within and above ground (p.30).

With this definition in mind, my own approach to permafrost appropriates the aspect of temperature state over periods of time, but views them through the lens of material agency4 or vibrant matter.5 In doing so, other underground materials - beyond organic matter - become an actor within permafrost as well. Thus creating a temporal-material framework for this frozen ground.

Permafrost conditions and distribution across the Arctic Circle

The division of permafrost territorial is based on the coverage amount (from continuous coverage to isolated patches). Across the Arctic Circle, permafrost is the primairy ground condition, meaning those who design in this part of the world must understand its dynamics.

Continuous Discontinuous Sporadic Isolated

Distribution across the Arctic

Permafrost covers some 25% of global areas (roughly 22.8 million km2): nearly one half of Canada, two thirds of Russia, most of Svalbard, parts of China, large portions of Alaska, U.S.A., Mongolia, Greenland, and the Antarctic.1

Territorially, it is categorized according to its distribution (see image left): “continuous (where permafrost exists everywhere and can be interrupted by taliks under big water bodies), discontinuous (where permafrost is interrupted or alternates with areas of unfrozen soil), sporadic (where permafrost occurs as separate masses surrounded by unfrozen soil), isolated(which occurs mainly in peat mounds and ridges surrounded by unfrozen bog).”2

The categorization of permafrost from the surface does little to reveal its nuances. It is instead the sectional reading of this ground where the dynamics and processes which shape this landscape become more clear (see page. 15).

1. Yuri Shur et al. “Permafrost,” in Singh V.P, Sing P., Haritashya, Encyclopedia of Snow, Ice and Glaciers (Dordrecht: Springer, 2011): 842. 2. Ibid: 843.

Bjørnøya

Distribution of continuous permafrost across Svalbard and elements which penetrate it

Continuous permafrost layer hatched in black + Points of engagement with the underground across Svalbard (mining + boreholes) Permafrost Boreholes Mine Sites

Idealized temperature and spatial profile of permafrost depicting the various levels, processes, and influences

Image by author with temperature information adapted from Strand (2016).

Diagram of Permafrost Conditions in Longyearbyen (to be built upon as more conditions reveal themselves)

Boreholes UNIS East (-8m) Old Auroral Station 2 (-10m) Breinosa (-10m) Endalen (-19m) Janssonhaugen (-20m)

Historical Longyearbyen Graveyard (-0.3m) Various infrastructural elements(-1m)

Infrastructure Various conditions above ground (+) Foundations (1-5m) Airport (1-4m) Seed Vault (-130m) Arctic World Archive (-300m)

Mining Various conditions above ground (+) Entrance to mines (0) Mine 7 under Foxfauna Glacier (-100m) Mine 3 coal seam (-300m)

Organic Active layer (0 to -20m) Depth along coasts (-100m) Average depth in valleys (-100 to -150m) Average depth in mountains (-400 to -500m)

Geology Carolinefjellet Formation (190m to 1200m thick) Helvetiafjellet Formation (12m to 155m thick) Rurifjellet Formation (110m to 400m thick)

*groundwater would be included but it is very difficult to assess in continuous permafrost areas. Most water is runoff in Svalbard (see conversation with Amanda Post).

(references) 1. Ole Humlum, Arne Instanes and Johan Ludvig Sollid, “Permafrost in Svalbard: a review of research history, climatic background and engineering challenges,” Polar Research 22, no. 2 (2003):199. 2. I. Hanssen-Bauer, et al. Climate in Svalbard 2100: a knowldge base for climate adaptation (Oslo: Miljodirektoratet, 2019): 113 4. Stefanie Cable, Bo Elberling and Aart Kroon, “Holocene permafrost history and cryostratigraphy in the High-Arctic Adventdalen Valley, central Svalbard,” Boreas 47 (2018): 424. 4. Ole Humlum: 192. 5. Ibid: 192. 6. Graham Lewis Gilbert, “Cryostratigraphy and sedimentology of high-Arctic fjord-valleys,” Masters thesis, University of Bergan (2018):iii. 7. Hanne H. Christiansen: 237. 8. Ole Humlum:199. 9. Ibid: 199. 10. Hanne H. Christiansen: 237. 11. I. Hanssen-Bauer: 117. 12. Ibid: 117-122. 13. Hanne H. Christiansen: 247. 14. I. Hanssen-Bauer: 122

* see Appendix for definitions

Formation in Svalbard

The island of Svalbard is covered up to 25,000km2 with a continuous layer of permafrost.1 This extent of frozen ground typically measures -100m to -150m below the surface in valleys, and up to -500m in the mountains.2 This high altitude permafrost was likely formed during the Pleistocene era (2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago), whereas the valley developed throughout the Holocene (11,500 years ago to present).3

The first official record of permafrosts presence in Svalbard was in the First International Polar Year (1882).4 With the introduction of coal mining activities (beginning in 1890), ground temperature analysis began to occur as well. These initial studies found a variation in ground temperature up to 2m (document by Ekholm in 1890 in Observations Météorologiques).5

Typically, permafrost manifests itself on Svalbard’s landscape in multiple ways: pingos, ice wedges, sorted circles, rock glaciers. These formations occur within the syngenetic* permafrost and the uppermost part of epigenetic* permafrost as they contain the highest quantities of ice, and thus are most impacted by thaw, erosion, and settling.6

As captured by the six permafrost observation sites in Adventdalen, ground temperature (-10m depth) has increased by 0.15°C each year since 1990, resulting in the active layer growing in depth by 0.6cm/per year in sediments, and 1.6cm/per year in bedrock since 2000.7 These fluctuating conditions are further amplified by the sporadic nature of permafrost in Svalbard, as a slight variations in “slope, aspect, altitude, topographic shading, and redistribution of winter snow cover by wind,”8 can alter its composition.

With increased temperatures and precipitation, the thawing period is likely to increase as well,10 causing the active layer to expand and even disappear completely in some parts by 2100.11 This will result in more landslides, slope instability, coastal erosion, solifluction, slush flows and structural failures.12 Hanne Christiansen et al. argue for the importance of monitoring the base of permafrost to better understand the source of these instabilities.13 Subsequently, new planning and design strategies which consider this fluid, multi-level, impermanent frozen ground must be considered as well.14

Bjørnøya

Arctic greening due to increased climate and ground temperatures

Graphic based on IPCC 5th assessment report of the areas within Svalbard that are expected to increase in vegetation as global temperatures increase

less vegetation more vegetation

Increasing ground temperature and precipitation will likely increase slope instability and glacial thaw

Areas at risk for landslides in black, glaciers and morraines in grey, coal mines dashed

Estimate of permafrost distribution in 2100

Projected permafrost extent in 2100 per IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report + Ground temperature in 2100 per Arctic Monitoring Aassessment Program RCP 4.5 RCP 8.5 -12C 8C

Relevance to landscape architecture

Given the significance of permafrosts scale and distribution across the Arctic, landscape architects working in these areas will address frozen ground at some time or another. To date, many designed infrastructural elements have been impacted by permafrosts fluctuating conditions (see III. Permafrost in Svalbard). As presented before, these conditions will only increase across the Arctic.

Given these changes, the scientific community has recommended a deeper reading of permafrost (physical and metaphorical) with new approaches to planning and design which consider this fluidity. Leena Cho, echoes this call within landscape architect given permafrosts agency and ability to shape spatial, temporal, and cultural landscapes above and below ground. In speaking of the materials which designers modify/place/remove within permafrost she describes the following:

“[they] further reconfigure thermal exchange between the active layer and permafrost, not only by the presence or structures or atmospheric interactions but also by the ephemeral yet lasting imprints of equipment and vehicles that repeatedly reshape the ground.

All of these biological, chemical, geological, human and machinic dimensions that impact the permafrost landscape, directly or indirectly, are essential and underused design media for landscape architecture in the Arctic and can lead to socioecologically meaningful design principles through a creative choreography and reinterpretations of their interrelations.”

Given this context; What would a landscape architectural approach to understanding permafrosts above and below ground conditions look like?

How do you draw, model, and design for the fluid assemblage of materials present within sub-surface permafrost?

How do underground materials such as coal, slate, siltstone.. react to water, ice, heat, vapor.. through natural (thawing, settling, eroding, dispersing) and artificial processes (moving, breaking, adding)?

What would landscape architecture which considers permafrost following Cho’s definition look like? How would this design alter underground spaces embedded in permafrost? How would these manifest on the surface?

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