the open northern part of the boreal forest; consists of open woodland of coniferous trees growing in a rich floor of lichen (mainly reindeer moss or caribou moss), and is generally cold and swampy; lies immediately south of the tundra; in spring, it is often flooded by water from northward flowing rivers, the lower reaches of which are still frozen.
talik
a layer or body of unfrozen ground occurring in a permafrost area due to a local anomaly in thermal, hydrological, hydrogeological, or hydrochemical conditions.
a physical quantity characterizing the mean random motion of molecules in a physical body; in other words, it is a measure of the degree of hotness or coldness of a substance.
a dimensionless ratio describing the relationship between the rate of thaw and the rate of consolidation of a thawing soil, which is considered to be a measure of the relative rates of generation and expulsion of excess water during thaw.
a boundary sometimes identified in perennially frozen ground, representing the base of a relict active layer, as well as the corresponding earlier permafrost table.
the reduction in shear strength due to the decrease in effective stresses resulting from the generation and slow dissipation of excess pore pressures when frozen soils containing ice are thawing.
perennially frozen ground which, upon thawing, will experience significant thaw settlement and suffer loss of strength to a value significantly lower than that for similar material in an unfrozen condition.