O permafrost (from English perm: permanent + frost: frozen), also called Pergelsol, is a type of frozen soil formed in the Arctic region, characterized by being so much part of the geosphere, for presenting rocks and sediments, how much of the cryosphere, for presenting layers of ice.
Its formation is directly linked to great latitudes and altitudes, where temperatures are very low. Its area is about 13 million km², something around 25% of the land in the Northern Hemisphere.
It is possible to have vegetation on the permafrost. This can happen as long as the plant's roots are able to penetrate its surface layer and, below it, find water.
The Pergelisol, during its long freezing process, harbored a large amount of plant and animal remains. However, what could be a source of fossil conservation could become a major environmental problem. With global warming and permafrost melting during the warmer months, the decomposition of these remains of living things can emit an unparalleled amount of methane and carbon dioxide, some of the gases responsible for the effect. stove. Scientists specializing in this issue claim that 45 billion tons of these gases could be released in the next 30 years.
On the other hand, there is also evidence that melting could also stimulate growth and dissemination of vegetation, which could act to absorb carbon dioxide and reduce its emission In the atmosphere.
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However, it is still too early to draw definitive conclusions about the permafrost thaw, as all results and conclusions of the studies carried out are partial. On the one hand, there is a lot of hype about the consequences of the melting, on the other hand, there is a milder discourse. The next few years may be fundamental for understanding this issue more and better.
Types of Permafrost
There are several types of permafrost, which have been classified according to the oscillation of the ice sheets:
Isolated Permafrost: characterized by the amount of earth and rock being greater than that of ice, which appears in isolation in small spaces.
Continuous Permafrost: characterized by the amount of ice being much greater than that of earth and rocks, forming continuous layers of ice.
Discontinuous permafrost: characterized by the amount of ice being a little greater than or equal to that of land and rocks, suffering some ruptures in their layers, resulting in the formation of ice blocks not continuous.
Sporadic permafrost: characterized by the amount of ice being slightly smaller than that of earth and rocks, forming small plates that are disconnected from each other.
By Rodolfo Alves Pena
Graduated in Geography
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
PENA, Rodolfo F. Alves. "Permafrost"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/geografia/permafrost.htm. Accessed on July 27, 2021.
