Pollard, Wayne H.

English

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464 • REVIEWSGiven Bern Will Brown’s long, colourful, and at timescontroversial career in the North, it is tempting for thereader to seek more from the author than he could possiblyhave packed into two volumes. Brown has given us twothoughtfully written and well-crafted books that leave mehoping he will continue to write about his years in the North.Chris HanksSenior Environmental SpecialistBHP Diamonds Inc.1102, 4920 52nd StreetYellowknife, Northwest Territories, CanadaX1A 2W8GENERAL GEOCRYOLOGY. By E.D. YERSHOV. NewYork: Cambridge University Press, 1998. ISBN 0-521-47344-9. xxiii + 580 p., b&w illus., bib., index. Hard-bound. US$120.00.The Earth’s polar regions are among the coldest, harshestand most remote physical environments on the planet and,as a result, remain one of its least understood systems.Cold regions research, particularly the study of frozenground properties and processes, is a relatively recent fieldof science that since the mid-1940s has emerged as adistinct subdiscipline of Earth Science. Its growth hasbeen closely linked to the unique demands of constructionin areas underlain by permafrost and activities associatedwith both the Arctic oil and gas industry and the Cold War.The geographical and ideological isolation of the formerSoviet Union from other northern countries resulted in thedevelopment of two distinct and often disparate bodies offrozen ground literature. One is primarily in English anddominated by North American and European examples;the other, in Russian, focuses on Siberian examples. Theliterature also reflects strong philosophical differences:for example, the North American-European approach hasa strong geomorphic bent that is rooted in climaticgeomorphology, while the Russian approach is firmlybased in physical geology and stratigraphy. Until recently,the West has had little access to the extensive Russianliterature. Notable exceptions are the translations of booksby Shumskii (1964) and Tsytovich (1975) and paperspublished in the proceedings of seven international perma-frost conferences. However, these translations are ex-tremely specific. General Geocryology is an Englishtranslation of the Russian textbook ObshchayaGeokriologiya, published in 1990, which provides uniqueinsight into the Russian approach to frozen ground scienceas well as into its historical and geographical context.Although geocryology is widely accepted as referringto the investigation of frozen ground, in the Russianliterature it is a general term that embraces not onlyprocesses and phenomena associated with seasonal frostand permafrost, but also areas covered by glaciers(Fyodorov and Ivanov, 1974). Professor Yershov describesgeocryology as the branch of geology that includes thestudy of physical laws governing frozen ground and itsstructure and properties. It also includes the investigationof cryogeological processes active in permafrost forma-tion. In North America, on the other hand, cold climate andfrozen earth studies have traditionally been the domain ofpermafrost and periglacial science (Washburn, 1973;French, 1996), although in recent years the termgeocryology has gained widespread acceptance. For ex-ample, in 1979 Washburn republished his 1973 text,Periglacial Processes and Environments, under the titleGeocryology: A survey of periglacial processes and envi-ronments. Thus, in the English literature geocryologyincludes mainly the geomorphic and geotechnical charac-teristics of permafrost and periglacial systems.General Geocryology presents a rather uneven over-view of frozen ground topics. It begins with backgroundnotes by the editor, including useful translational notesthat identify key sources and potentially problematic terms.Next come the author’s preface and an introduction thatprovides general background material on topics rangingfrom planetary cryology and patterns in permafrost occur-rence in past geologic periods to the evolution of perma-frost science in Russia and theoretical and methodologicalapproaches in Russian geocryology. The neophyte willfind these materials both interesting and a good indicationof the very different nature of Russian permafrost science.The main body of the text is divided into five sectionscomprising 19 chapters. There is significant inconsistencyin detail and technical level between the various sections.The first section, entitled “Thermal, physical, physico-chemical and mechanical processes in freezing, frozen andthawing ground and their manifestation in permafrostregions,” is the longest (five chapters) and most technicalpart of the book. In this section, Yershov describes indetail the theoretical and physical aspects of ground freez-ing and thawing. Included are chapters on moisture dy-namics, physical and chemical processes, changes instructure, and physical manifestations of ground freezing.The second section, “Composition, cryogenic structureand properties of frozen rocks,” is divided into four chap-ters that focus mainly on the geological character of frozenground. This section is somewhat disjointed and descrip-tive, and it lacks the detail found in other Russian transla-tions (e.g., Shumskii, 1964; Tsytovich, 1975). However,for those unfamiliar with the Russian approach to perma-frost science, Section 2 will be very useful. Section 3,“Principles of the formation and development of the fro-zen strata and layers of seasonal freezing and thawing,”deals with surface energy balance conditions and surfaceprocesses associated with the active layer, and permafrostformation. This section (four chapters) is reasonably tech-nical and introduces a number of uniquely Russian con-cepts, for example, V.A. Kudryavtsev’s seasonal freezingand thawing classification and Romanovskij’s talik classi-fication. Section 4, “Regional features and evolution ofpermafrost,” is short (three chapters), descriptive, and theREVIEWS • 465least scientific part of the book. The final section, entitled“Rational use of frozen ground and environmental protec-tion in the course of economic development of permafrostregions,” provides a qualitative overview of Russian con-struction techniques, engineering philosophies, andremediation measures.This book makes three contributions. First of all, itprovides useful knowledge about basic geocryology. Sec-ondly, it is one of the first texts published in English tooffer insight into some of the uniquely Russian approachesto geocryology. Finally, it provides an interesting time linefor the development of permafrost science in Russia.Although more “readable“ than most English transla-tions of Russian permafrost material, General Geocryologysuffers from a series of basic inherent problems. In par-ticular, the scientific level is inconsistent: some sectionsare extremely technical while others are very general.Also, information and examples are inadequately refer-enced. There are only 21 references, and many studiescited in the text are not referenced. The references that areprovided are incomplete and presented in a nonstandardformat. On a general level, the book’s narrow geographi-cal focus and lack of references limit its usefulness toeither a general reference or a supplementary course text.The dry and overly technical writing style typical of manyRussian scientific translations makes reading quite chal-lenging. The use of graphics is limited, and in most casesthe figures are poorly linked to the text. Diagrams aresmall, plain, and complicated, often with either cumber-some or inadequate captions. The few photographs aremostly small-scale and in black and white. Despite aRussian geographical focus, there are few maps to providespatial context. The book uses cumbersome and compli-cated terminology, which in some cases includes eithernew or unconventional words (e.g., “cryohydration” and“technogenic”). Equations contain nonstandard symbols,and the absence of a listing of these symbols is alsoproblematic. As an active permafrost scientist, this re-viewer was disappointed by the omission of details aboutthe Russian approach to permafrost classification, groundice and thermokarst, permafrost stratigraphy, gas hydrates,and permafrost hydrology.In conclusion, despite some basic problems, GeneralGeocryology makes a useful contribution to the perma-frost literature with its wide-ranging review of Russianpermafrost science and up-to-date perspective on someaspects of the Russian approach to frozen ground studies.In this reviewer’s opinion, General Geocryology will be aworthwhile addition to the reference library of any re-searcher or upper-level university student specializing inpermafrost geology and engineering.REFERENCESFRENCH, H.M. 1996. The periglacial environment. 2nd ed. Harlow,United Kingdom: Addison Wesley Longman Ltd. 341 p.FYODOROV, J.S., and IVANOV, N.S. 1974. English-Russiangeocryological dictionary. Yakutsk: Yakutsk State University.127 p.SHUMSKII, P.A. 1964. Principles of structural glaciology.Translated from the Russian by David Kraus. New York: DoverPublications Inc. 497 p.TSYTOVICH, N.A. 1975. The mechanics of frozen ground. NewYork: McGraw-Hill. 426 p.WASHBURN, A.L. 1973. Periglacial processes and environments.London: Edward Arnold Publishers. 320 p.———. 1979. Geocryology: A survey of periglacial processes andenvironments. London: Edward Arnold Publishers. 401 p.WILLIAMS, P.J., and SMITH, M.W. 1986. The frozen earth:Fundamentals in geocryology. Cambridge: Cambridge UniversityPress. 306 p.Wayne H. PollardDepartment of GeographyMcGill University805 Sherbrooke Street WestMontreal, Quebec, CanadaH3A 2K6UNDER POLARIS: AN ARCTIC QUEST. By TAHOETALBOT WASHBURN. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1999. xii + 247 p., b&willus., maps, glossary, appendix, bib., indexes. Hard-bound. US$27.50.Many times during the last 100 years or so explorers andadventurers adopted Inuit ways to learn how to survive inthe Arctic. People like Amundsen, Stefansson, and Nansen,to mention a few, lived like Northerners, learning to huntfor food, convert hides into clothing, and eat what theNortherners ate. On a different scale, and somewhat later,the author and her husband did much the same. LinkWashburn is a well-known geologist. They went to theCanadian Arctic in the late 1930s for the geological field-work that led to his Ph.D. degree at Yale University.This book represents the author’s journal writings fromJuly 1938 to February 1941, a period the couple spent inthat part of the Northwest Passage from King WilliamIsland in the east to the Beaufort Sea in the west. Her intentis to document the events involved in her husband’s fieldstudies and their daily activities of living and working withthe Natives, Hudson’s Bay Company employees, mission-aries, and pilots of the aircraft that transported them to andfrom their field sites.The 12 chapters are grouped into time periods and areastraversed during those years. Numerous black-and-whitephotographs help to tell the story of the conditions, notonly in summer, but also in some of the winters. Six mapsshow the routes traveled by a combination of Norsemanaircraft, RCMP vessels, Inuit schooners, and dog sledges.Because there were no constructed airfields in this area atthat time, aircraft travel was by floatplane when there was

General Geocryology, by E.D. Yershov

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General Geocryology, by E.D. Yershov

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