Permafrost and related engineering problems

Roughly one-fifth of the world's land area is subject to permafrost, that is, perennially frozen ground. It is particularly important in the Soviet Union and in Canada, each of which has roughly half of its territory affected. Permafrost not only poses questions of great geophysical interest but presents the civil engineer with many exceedingly difficult problems. This article reviews the principles governing the distribution of permafrost and some of the ways of overcoming the difficulties.Environ un cinqui\ue8me des terres \ue9merg\ue9s du globe sont form\ue9 es de perg\ue9lisol, c'est-\ue0-dire de terres \ue9ternellement gel\ue9 es. A cet \ue9gard, l'Union sovi\ue9tique et le Canada viennent en t\ueate, avec chacun pr\ue8s de la moiti\ue9 de son territoire ainsi constitu\ue9. Le perg\ue9lisol soul\ue8ve des probl\ue8mes g\ue9 ophysiques tr\ue8s int\ue9ressants; mais, d'autre part, il pr\ue9 sente \ue0 l'ing\ue9nieur civil d'\ue9normes difficult\ue9s. Cet article \ue9tudie les principes qui r\ue9gissent la r\ue9partition du perg\ue9lisol et expose quelques-unes des solutions adopt\ue9es pour r\ue9soudre les diffcult\ue9s.Peer reviewed: NoNRC publication: Ye