Schefferville Permafrost Temperature Database

Summary

This data set consists of ground temperature data from 192 boreholes in the area of Schefferville, Quebec (54°48'N, 66°50'W), located within the discontinuous permafrost zone. Temperature cables were installed at the Barney, Fleming, Knox mine, Timmins, Ferriman, Howse, Lance, Pinx, Red and Star ore deposits. Borehole depths ranged from 4 to 137 m, with the majority of boreholes being between 25 and 125 m deep. Data are provided for the period between 1957 to 1982. The length of record varies from only one temperature record to records greater than 10 years in length, with the longest record being 16 years long. The data are provided in both an MS Access database and tab-delimited ASCII formats. The database consists of two tables: one which contains information for individual boreholes, such as location and length of record, and a second table that contains the ground temperature data for all boreholes. The two tables are linked by a unique borehole site number.

The paper by S. Smith and M. Burgess provides historical background on the database. Data are available via ftp.

Citing These Data:

Granberg, H.B., J.E. Lewis, T.R. Moore, P. Steer, and R.K. Wright. 1984. Schefferville Permafrost Research Volume I, Parts 1a and 1b: summary review and recommendations and catalogue of available materials.Earth Physics Branch Open File 84-7. Distributed by Boulder, CO: National Snow and Ice Data Center. Digital Media.

Overview Table

Category	Description
Data format	MS Access database and tab-delimited ASCII files
Spatial coverage	Schefferville, Canada
Temporal coverage	1957 - 1982
File naming convention	MS Access database file: ggd605_scheff_data.mdb. Tab delimited ASCII files: ggd605_scheff_temp.txt, ggd605_scheff_location.txt
File size	ASCII files:16 KB and 1.6 MB. MSAcess database: 4.6 MB.
Parameter(s)	ground temperature
Procedures for obtaining data	data are available via ftp

1. Contacts and Acknowledgments
2. Detailed Data Description
3. Document Information

1. Contacts and Acknowledgments:

Investigator(s) Name and Title:

Sharon Smith
Geological Survey of Canada
Natural Resources Canada
601 Booth Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0E8 Canada

Margo Burgess
Geological Survey of Canada
Natural Resources Canada
601 Booth Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0E8 Canada

Technical Contact:

NSIDC User Services
National Snow and Ice Data Center
CIRES, 449 UCB
University of Colorado
Boulder, CO 80309-0449 USA
phone: +1 303.492.6199
fax: +1 303.492.2468
form: Contact NSIDC User Services
e-mail: nsidc@nsidc.org

Acknowledgements:

Data rescue (from the original nine track tape) was facilitated by W. Pollard of McGill University and funding from the Government of Canada’s Climate Change Action Fund. Jason Chartrand assisted with reformatting of the database and map preparation.

2. Detailed Data Description:

Format:

The data are provided in both MS Access database and tab-delimited ASCII formats. The database consists of two tables: one which contains information for individual boreholes, such as location and length of record, and a second table that contains the ground temperature data for all boreholes. The two tables are linked by a unique borehole site number.

File headers in the first MS Access database table, and in the file "location.txt", include:

ID - Borehole site number (unique identifier)
Location - Ore deposit or mine that the borehole is associated with
Descriptive Name - Descriptive local name for the borehole site
IOCC Ref - The IOCC designation for the borehole site
Easting - Easting UTM coordinate (m) of borehole location based on NAD27 datum
Northing - Northing UTM coordinate (m) of borehole location based on NAD27 datum
Zone - UTM zone in which the borehole is located
Elev - Elevation (m) above sea level of the borehole
Number of Records - The number of observations recorded for the borehole
Start Date - The date of the first record in the observation period (mm/dd/yy in ASCII file)
End Date - The date of the last record in the observation period
Max Depth - The depth of the deepest temperature sensor

File headers in the second MS Access database table, and in the file "temp_table.txt", include:

BH - Borehole site number (unique identifier)
Date - Date of the observation (mm/dd/yy in ASCII file)
Depth - Depth of the observation (cm)
Temp - Ground temperature (°C)

File Naming Convention:

The MS Access database file is named ggd605_scheff_data.mdb. The tab-delimited ASCII files are named ggd605_scheff_location.txt and ggd605_scheff_temp.txt.