NRC Publications Archive Archives des publications du CNRC Principles of Geocryology (Permafrost Studies). Part I, General Geocryology. Chapter X, Ground Water in Permafrost Areas. p. 328-364 Ponomarev, V. M.; Tolstikhin, N. I. 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/10.4224/20331690 Technical Translation (National Research Council of Canada), 1964 NRC Publications Record / Notice d'Archives des publications de CNRC: https://nrc-publications.canada.ca/eng/view/object/?id=a43132db-b733-4526-a58f-6a3b507813d5 https://publications-cnrc.canada.ca/fra/voir/objet/?id=a43132db-b733-4526-a58f-6a3b507813d5 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]. PREFACE This translation is the fifth arranged by the Permafrost Subcommittee of the Associate Committee on Soil and Snow Mechanics of the National Research Council of the Russian permafrost publi- cation, "~rinciplesof Qeocryology" . The first translation in this group was of Chapter VI entitled "Heat and Moisture Transfer in Freezing and Thawing Soils" by G.A. Martynov (TT-1065). The second was of Chapter IV "General Mechanisms of the Formation and Development of ~ermafrost"by P .F. Shvetsov (TT-1117). The third was Chapter VII "Geographical Distribution of Seasonally Frozen Ground and Permafrost" by I.Ya. Baranov (TT-1121) and the fourth was Chapter IX "Ground (Subsurface) Ice" by P.A. Shumskii (TT-1130). This translation of Chapter X by V.M. Ponomarev and N.I. Tolstikhln reviews the various theories and ideas of the formation and distribution of ground water. This is followed by a discussion of each of the types of ground water encountered in the permafrost region and their relation to the geological structure. These include ground water above, within and beneath the permafrost. More than fifty separate ground water regions and subregions are recognized and described in detail. The Division is grateful to the Geological Survey of Canada in arranging for the translation of this chapter in response to the request of the Permafrost Subcommittee. Ottawa R.F. kgget July 1964 Director NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL OF CANADA Technical Translation 1138 Title : Ground water in permafrost areas (Podzemn e vody territorii s mnogoletnemerzlymi gornymi porodamir Aut hors : V.M. Ponomarev and N.I. Tolstikhin Reference: Principles of geocryology (permafrost studies), Part I, General geocryology, Chapter X. Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R. Moscow 1959. p.328-364 (0snovy geokriologii (merzlotovedeniya), Chastl pervaya, Obshchaya geokriologiya Glava X. Akademiya Nauk SSSR. Moskva 1959. a. 328-3641 Translator: C. de Leuchtenberg, Translation Bureau, Department of the Secretary of State CIROUND WATER JN PERMAFROST AREAS Introduction Ground water in permafrost areas has a mutual relation with ground water in adJacent areas. The deep freezing of the earth's crust has created special conditions for its circulation, water exchange with surface water, and forma- tion of chemical composition. The hypothesis stated by V.I. Vernadskii, according to which fresh ground water passes over at a certain depth into saline, does not rouse anybody's doubts at present (~ernadskii,1934,). A knowledge of conditions, determining the boundary of fresh and saline water, is of tremendous practical and scientific interest. On this question V.I. Vernadskii stated the following. "Subsurface atmospheres are to a considerable degree aqueous subsurface atmospheres - water vapour must predominate in them by its weight .....water vapour permeates the entire stratisphere. It enters from below and from above. The permeation from below has a special significance, as it creates fresh water there, where otherwise it would not exist.. ...Saline and brine solutions produce fresh water vapour. This is one of the fundamental processes, as we shall see, in the history of natural water. It is analogous to that accumulation of fresh water, which by evaporation from surface solutions (partly from moisture in the top soil) is concentrated as clouds in the troposphere, and in its products: pools, rivers and lakes1' (Vernadskii, 1933,, pp.30-31). It is regrettable that little attention is being paid to these statements and yet, in our opinion, they open new horizons in the science of formation of ground water . In agreement with the statements of V.I. Vernadskii, ground water can be schematically divided Into three interrelated zones: the upper (fresh water), the middle (saline water) and the lower (water vapour). Water vapour is present in the first two zones, but there it is a a composite part of the subsurface atmosphere. However, in the lower zone there is no water in its liquid phase. For convenience of examining this problem we exclude the transitional zones, although they undoubtedly exist. Let us consider two districts, differing sharply in natural conditions, and endeavour to determine how the thickness of the fresh water zone depends on the temperature of the ground at the bottom of the layer of seasonal temper- ature fluctuations, all other conditions being equal. Let ue assume that In the first district (Moscow area) thie temperature is equal to +5OC, and in the second (~ordvik)-12OC, and that the geothermal gradient is equal in both cases. In this case the lower horizon of saline water in the first-named dist~ictwill be at the depth where T1 - the boiling-point of water at the depth HI; S - geothermal gradient. In the second district the lower horizon will be at the depth where T, - the boiling-point of water at the depth H,; h - the thickness of the perennial cryolithozone, equal in the given case to 550 m; S - the geothermal gradient below the base of tkie perennial cryolitho- zone. Substituting the value for h, we obtain H, = ST, + 550. (10.3) Since the boiling-point of water increases with Increasing depth, and likewise the pressures (T,> TI), so the horizon of boiling water and of water vapour condensation will be at a greater depth in the second district than in the first. The difference in the depth of occurrence of the lower horizon of saline water in the second and first districts will be determined from the equation (in the general form): Since we have assumed that the geothermal gradient is the same in both districts, then, evidently the difference between the depths of occurrence of the lower horizons of fresh water will be about equal in the second and first districts to this difference for saline waters. Hence it follows that in permafrost areas the thickness of the zone of fresh water must be theoretically greater than elsewhere*. -- - * An opposite point of view has also been put forward, namely, that the zone of fresh, artesian water in districts with thick masses of frozen deposits, is less than outside those districts. In solving this problem one ought to take into account the rate of change of temperature and pressure with degth and the critical values of these parameters of the state of water (374.2 C and 218.5 atm). Editor's note. This phenomenon is observed in reality. "An extremely interesting fact is the discovery of a very thick zone of fresh water in the Jurassic, beneath the town of Yakutsk. The known thickness of this zone is about 450 m, and the possibility is not excluded that fresh water occurs here and also In the Cambrian. If this is so, then the thickness of the fresh water zone would be still greater. The similar peat depth of occurrence of fresh water in the interior part of a basin is a rare exception in nature. Amid the artesian basins in the European part of the USSR, western Siberia and central Asia, only one artesian basin is known, namely the Dneiper-Donets basin, where the same thickness of the fresh water zone has been observed* (~olstikhin,1950). As noted above, the increase in thickness of the fresh water zone within the perennial cryolithozone, all other conditions being equal, is a regular and not a casual phenomenon. This is confirmed as well by the findings of V.M. Pononlarev (1952) for the district of Ust8-Port, where the thiclcness of the perennial cryolithozone is twice greater than at Yakutsk. There the thickness of the fresh water zone is similarly about 500 m, includlng the thickness of frozen soil. The display of the noted regularity is complicated by the influence of other processes and events which similarly determine the formation of ground water. To them belong: leaching of salt-bearing fonnations by ground water, biogeochemical processes in districts with oil, coal and ore deposits, tec- tonics, volcanic activity, Interaction of ground water with surface water and other causes. Ground water and the permafrost are in a state of constant, thermal physico-chemical interaction and the results of this are either an increase of the zone of frozen soil at the expense of reduction of the quantity of pound water, or the reverse.