Permafrost Investigations in Saskatchewan and Manitoba Brown, R

NRC Publications Archive Archives des publications du CNRC Permafrost investigations in Saskatchewan and Manitoba Brown, R. J. E. For the publisher’s version, please access the DOI link below./ Pour consulter la version de l’éditeur, utilisez le lien DOI ci-dessous. Publisher’s version / Version de l'éditeur: https://doi.org/10.4224/20358709 Technical Paper (National Research Council of Canada. Division of Building Research), 1965-09 NRC Publications Archive Record / Notice des Archives des publications du CNRC : https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=085cdef0-c549-4641-ac6f-f2ddafc35971 https://publications-cnrc.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=085cdef0-c549-4641-ac6f-f2ddafc35971 Access and use of this website and the material on it are subject to the Terms and Conditions set forth at https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/copyright READ THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE USING THIS WEBSITE. L’accès à ce site Web et l’utilisation de son contenu sont assujettis aux conditions présentées dans le site https://publications-cnrc.canada.ca/fra/droits LISEZ CES CONDITIONS ATTENTIVEMENT AVANT D’UTILISER CE SITE WEB. Questions? Contact the NRC Publications Archive team at [email protected]. If you wish to email the authors directly, please see the first page of the publication for their contact information. Vous avez des questions? Nous pouvons vous aider. Pour communiquer directement avec un auteur, consultez la première page de la revue dans laquelle son article a été publié afin de trouver ses coordonnées. Si vous n’arrivez pas à les repérer, communiquez avec nous à [email protected]. NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL CANADA DIVISION OF BUILDING RESEARCH PERMAFROST INVESTIGATIONS IN SASKAT CHEWAN AND MANITOBA by R. J. E. Brown AI'JALYXI} Technical Paper No. 193 of the Division of Building Research OTTAWA September 1965 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page METHODS AND SCOPE OF INVESTIGATION 3 CLIMATE 5 GEOLOGY 7 TERRAIN 9 Relief 9 Drainage 9 Vegetation l0 SoiIs TZ PERMAFROST t3 High Areas t4 Low Areas r5 Air Photo Patterns I8 DISCUSSION 18 CONCLUSION z4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS z5 REI"ERENCES z5 TAB LrS I and II APPENDIX A PERMAT'ROST INVESTIGATIONS IN SASKATCHEWAN AND MANITOBA R. J. E. Brown Since I950 the Division of Building Research, National Research Council, has been studying the numerous construction problems caused by permafrost in northern Canada. A basic requirement in solving these problerns is knowledge of the distribution of perrnafrost and the location of its southern lirnit; inforrnation is being obtained continually from field investigations, the scientific and technical literature and reports frorn individuals and agencies working in perrnafrost areas. Information regarding distribution and character of permafrost is particularly vital in the southern fringe area where construction is cornplicated by patchy distribution of perennially frozen ground and the proximity of its temperature to 32"F. The existence of permafrost in this area is greatly influenced by rnicroclirnate and local terrain conditions, which form cornplex interrelationships producing variable and unpredictable ground thermal conditions. At present the southern fringe of the perrnafrost region is experiencing increasing economic developrnent with the establishment of new towns, comrrrunication lines, rnines and oil exploration. In the northern sections of the Prairie Provinces, particularly, new roads are being constructed northward through this area of the permafrost region, several hundreds of rniles south of the sixtieth parallel of latitude. Because of the increasing developrnent and unusually difficult engineering problems encountered in the southern fringe of perrnafrost, the Division of Building Research initiated, in 1962, a long-term prograrn of field surveys along the various roads in the affected regions of the Province of Alberta and the Mackenzie District (Reference I). In 1963 these field surveys were extended to the provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan; and will be followed in future years by sirnilar studies in the northern sections of other provinces into which the southern fringe of perrnafrost penetrates. z- The provinces of Manitoba and Saskatchewan were chosen as the site of the 1963 investigations to complete the survey of the Prairie Provinces begun in Alberta the previous year. The permafrost boundary in Canada is most easily studied in the Prairie Provinces for several reasons: (t) Access is facilitated by a network of recently constructed roads extending into the southern fringe of the perrnafrost region. There is no such similar network in either British Columbia or east of Manitoba. In Alberta, the Mackenzie Highway extends from Grirnshaw to Hay River through the southern fringe; and in Saskatchewan three roads have been eompleted within the past two years, to Li Loche in the west, to the Churchill River' at Otter Rapids in central Saskatchewan, and to Flin Flon,- Manitobd., in the east. These roads do not crosa the entire width of the southern fringe, but they penetrate well into it. In Manitoba there is a road to FIin Flon frorn The Pas and a branch road extending northeast to Thompson near the northern rnargin of the southern fringe. In conLrast, road developrnent in British Columbia is lirnited to the Alaska Highway and the Stewart-Cassiar Highway, not yet completed. There are no roads in the southern fringe in Ontario, Quebec or Labrador. (Zl The absence of relief such as occurs in the Cordillera and Labrador-Ungava results in a less cornplicated distribution pattern and aids the investigation of perrnafrost in the Prairie Provinces. In British Columbia and the Cordillera region of southwestern Alberta, distribution is cornplicated by the extrerne variations in elevation. Permafrost occurs on mountain slopes and sumrnits, but not at the valley bottorns. Ontario does not present this cornplication, but land access is exceedingly difficult. In Quebec and Labrador the distribution of perrnafrost is cornplicated by the relief north of the Lau^rentide Scarp and in the Torngat Mountains. East of the Cordillera in the Prairie Provinces, the only areas of significant elevation are several highlands in Alberta in the vicinity of the Mackenzie Highway - Buffalo Head, Naylor, Hawk and Clear Hills in the south, and the Caribou Mountains, Mount'Watt and the Carneron Hills further north. The highest of these are the Clear Hills rising 2,000 ft above the surrounding Peace and Hay River low- Iands and 3,600 ft above sea leve1. In Saskatchewan the Thunder Hills and Wapawekka Hills rise to slightly rnore thanZ,000 ft above sea level. Apart from these the relief is fairly subdued, varying frorn l,500 ft above sea level in Alberta to 500 ft in eastern Manitoba. 3- (3) The econornic developrnent of the area has been increasing considerably during the past few years. In Alberta' the Mackenz\e Highway was rebuilt as the road network was extended north to Yellowknife and down the Mackenzie River. The Great Slave Lake Railway is now under construction to provide access to the base metal ore deposits at Pine Point southeast of Hay River. In the past few years, the Saskatchewan Governrnent has undertaken to connect its northern settlements to the south by road and to provide a northern route from Prince AIbert to Flin Flon. In Manitoba, the establish- rnent of the large International Nickel Cornpany plant at Thompson, Manitoba, has prornpted the construction of a road to that town. Coupled with these rnining developments is the increased interest of the three provincial governrnents in developing facilities for recrea- tional activities - carnping, fishing and hunting - in the northern hinter- Iand. Contacts were established in Saskatchewan with the provincial Department of Highways and Transportation and the Departrnent of Natural Resources, and in Manitoba with the Highways Branch, Departrnent of Public Works. Considerable inforrnation was obtained from these agencies on permafrost conditions encountered during construction and maintenance of the roads. These field investigations were carried out during September 1963 when the depth of tharv had reached its maximurn and seasonal frost of the forthcoming winter had not yet begr.rn to forrn. Investigations were carried out in Saskatchewan frorn Prince Albert northwest to La Locbe, north to La Ronge and the Churchill River, and northeast to Flin FIon. In Manitoba, investigations were carried out between Flin Flon and The Pas and east of Cranberry Lake and Wekusko (Figures I and 2). METHODS AND SCOPE OF INVESTIGATIONS Prior to the actual field investigations, information on the clirnate and terrain was obtained frorn the technical literature. Aerial photographs and large-scale topographic rnaps of selected areas were exarnined in the office to identify the various types of terrain and the character of the relief, vegetation and surface drainage. From this prelirninary examination, potential perrnafrost Iocations were noted for subsequent field investigations. In the field, detailed investigations were carried out to obtain inforrnation on the areal extent of bodies of perrnafrost, the -4- depth to the permafrost table, and, where possible, the thickness of the perrnafrost. Supplementary information included the type of vegetation, the thickness of the living surface vegetation cover, the thickness of peat, the type of underlying mineral soil and the character of the ground ice. The rnain objective was to delineate,

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