Note: This data set was first published on the 1998 CAPS CD.
The text for this document was taken unchanged from that CD.

See also Description of Data Files.

The data in this subdirectory (\MOISTURE) are soil moisture content data collected in 1963 at Barrow, Alaska, by the U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL). Data collection was the responsibility of Jerry Brown at CRREL. Data compilation and reduction for the ARCSS/LAII program, funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation, was supervised by Frederick Nelson, Department of Geography and Planning, State University of New York at Albany.

The comprehensive sampling program of all 20 CRREL plots was accomplished in spring 1963. The purposes of this sampling were to characterize the soil properties along the plot transect, to examine the chemical properties and morphology of the seasonally and perennially frozen soil, and to visually determine fluctuations in depths of thaw.

Data were obtained in spring 1963 from four frozen cores per plot from 20 plots. Each core was photologged and cut in 5-cm intervals. Moisture content was determined on each segment and moisture weight was determined at 105 degrees C in a forced-air oven for 24 hours (Brown et.al., 1965, p.10). Interpretation of these data and grain size were presented elsehwere (Brown, 1969). Please refer to the references listed below for more information on data acquisition procedures.

Potential sites for the 1963 core sampling program were restricted to the inner 16 points in each of the 20 plots. For the core sampling program in 1963, two points representing minimum and two representing maximum values of the preceding year's thawed soil were chosen randomly and sampled in the frozen condition. The frozen sample consisted of a core 6.5 cm in diameter and approximately 1 m in length. A total of 80 cores were obtained, of which 22 terminated in ice wedges. The cores were photographed, cut into 5-cm increments, and analyzed. Moisture determination was conducted on all 5-cm segments of all 80 cores. Soil moisture determinations were obtained for intact 5-cm samples and not split samples.

The frozen samples were obtained by using a Concore drill mounted on a weasel-drawn, 1-ton sled. The drill was equipped with a single-walled core barrel and utilized a tungsten carbide bit. Air-cooled compressed air was employed to remove the frozen cuttings and to prevent chemical contamination commonly encountered with conventional drilling methods.

The data are in the file MOISTURE.DAT. The moisture values are in percent moisture by weight of soil (oven-dried basis) for each sample segment, and are listed by plot location (Brown et.al., 1965; Brown, 1969) and depth (cm). Hyphenated numbers heading each core record refer to plot and point location. Values in parentheses immediately following location designations refer to elevation of the point above sea level. The designation "iw" appearing in several cores refers to nearly pure inclusions of wedge ice. Owing to great variability over small vertical distances, some cores were sampled more frequently than the standard 5-cm interval in the uppermost 10 or 20 cm; users should take care to read the scale bars appearing to the left of each group of core records.

Please note that a depth scale has been included at the left of every few core records. The first 50 core records are all on the same scale, and can be attached to a single depth scale. After the first 50 core records, the depth scale changes for the next 25 core records. This is signified by a horizontal bar in the data set. This change is due to the fact that these cores have an extra moisture determination in the top 10 cm, and the scale had to be changed accordingly.

Another horizontal bar appears before the final 5 core records. This signals another change in the depth scale. In these final five cores, the extra moisture determination occurred in the second 10 cm of the core, and the scale has been adjusted again to reflect this fact.

Thus, these second (25 core records) and third (5 core records) groups should appear separately from the initial 50 core records.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

Further questions and requests for information about this data set may be forwarded to Frederick Nelson, Department of Geography and Planning, State University of New York at Albany, Albany, NY 12222. Phone: (518) 442-4770. FAX: (518) 442-4867. Internet: fnelson@uacsc1.albany.edu.

REFERENCES:

Brown, Jerry and Johnson, P.L. 1965. Pedo-ecological Investigations, Barrow, Alaska. Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory Technical Report 159, Hanover, NH, 32 pages plus appendices.

Brown, Jerry 1969. Soil properties developed on the complex tundra relief of northern Alaska. Biuletyn Peryglacjalny, vol. 18, pp. 153-167.

Mc Gaw, R. W., Outcalt, S.I., and Ng, E. 1978. Thermal properties and regime of wet tundra soils at Barrow, Alaska. In Proceedings, Third International Conference on Permafrost, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Canada, vol. 1, 47-53.

Nakano,Y.,and Brown,J. 1972. Mathematical modelling and validation of the thermal regimes in tundra soils, Barrow, Alaska. Arctic and Alpine Research, 4: 19-38.

National Science Foundation Grant OPP 9214897; Active Layer/Landscape Interactions: A Retrospective and Contemporary Regional Approach in Arctic Alaska. Ohio State University.