| Term: | Frozen ground |
| Definition: |
Soil or rock in which part or all of the pore water has turned into ice. NSIDCCryosphere
Soil or rock in which part or all of the pore water is frozen. Frozen ground includes permafrost. Ground that freezes and thaws annually is called seasonally frozen ground. IPCC2013 Soil or rock in which part or all of the pore water has turned into ice IPAPermafrost Soil or rock in which part or all of the pore water has turned into Ice. Perennially and seasonally Frozen Ground can vary from being partially to extensively frozen depending on the extent of the phase change. It may be described as hard Frozen Ground, plastic Frozen Ground, or dry Frozen Ground, depending on the Pore Ice and unfrozen water contents and its compressibility under load. Hard-frozen soils are firmly cemented by Ice, are subject to brittle failure, and exhibit practically no consolidation under load. Plastic-frozen soils are cemented by Ice but have viscous properties due to their high unfrozen water content and therefore will compress and deform under load. Dry, or friable-frozen, soils have a very low total water content and are not cemented by Ice; their compressibility is the same as for unfrozen soils having the same composition, total water content and density. TrombottoGeocryology Soil within which the moisture has predominantly changed to ice, the unfrozen portion being in vapor phase. Ice within the soil bonds (adfreezes) adjacent soil particles and renders frozen ground very hard. "Permanently" frozen ground is called permafrost. "Dry" frozen ground is relatively loose and crumbly because of the lack of bonding ice. Frozen ground is sometimes inadvisedly called frost or ground frost. AMSglossary GCW |