DISCUSSIONS

Reticulate Ice Veins in ermafrost,Northern Canada: Reply

J. Ross MACKAY
Department of Geography, University ofBritish Cohrmbin, Vancouver, British Colunzbia V6T I W5
Received September 25, 1974
Accepted October 7, 1974

The discussion by McRoberts and Nixon on

the writer's paper "Reticulate Ice Veins in
Permafrost, Northern Canada" (Mackay 1974)
is a welcome addition both to the paper and
to the theoretical aspects of the origin of
ground ice. Perhaps some comments on hydraulic fracturing are in order.

ydraulic Fracturing
The suggestion of hydraulic fracturing in
unfrozen soil below permafrost, and the filling
of these cracks with expelled pore water, is an
interesting theory which can probably be
checked, without too much difficulty, by studies
of: ( 1) ice vein patterns; ( 2 ) ice petrofabrics;
and ( 3 ) ice (water) quality. Let us consider
the case of vertical cracks, as suggested by
McRoberts and Nixon.
Ice Vein Patterns
When cracks open in the ground, it is frequently possible to distinguish between primary
and secondary cracks (Lachenbruch 1962).
Field exposures show that most ice veins can
be assigned to either a through going (primary)
system or to a terminating (secondary) system
where the ice veins end, with a near orthogonal
intersection, at through going ice veins. For
example, the primary ice veins in Fig. 1 are
horizontal, those in Fig. 2 are vertical. Therefore, if hydraulic fracturing initiated primary
vertical cracks, through going vertical cracks
should occur, although such cracks obviously
do not, of themselves, support an origin from
hydraulic fracturing. Vertical primary cracks
are frequently seen in natural exposures along
the Western Arctic Coast, usually at depths of
less than 10 m. The vertical ice veins can
merge at depth into a horizontal system, end
abruptly at a thaw unconformity (Mackay
1974, Fig. 3 ) , or grade into horizontal bands
'Discussion by McRoberts, E. C., and Nixon, 1. F.
Can. Geotech. J. 12(1), pp. 159-162.
Can. Geotech. J . , 12,163 (1W5)

of massive segregated ice (Mackay 1974, Fig.

4 ) . The downward grading into massive segregated ice has also been reported in the U.S.S.R.
(Baulin 1972). Therefore, if the primary ice
veins are horizontal, as in Fig. 1, hydraulic
fracturing below the lower permafrost surface
would seem far less likely than where the
primary cracks are vertical, as in Fig. 2.

Ice Vein Petrofabrics

If hydraulic fracturing opened vertical cracks
in unfrozen material below the lower permafrost surface, and bulk water which filled the
cracks then froze, the ice petrofabrics would
indicate freezing of bulk water by a descending,
essentially horizontal, freezing plane. For example, some vertically elongated prismatic ice
crystals with horizontal c-axes and vertically
oriented bubble trains would be expected. If,
instead, a vertical fracture were to open above
the lower permafrost surface with the intrusion
of bulk water from below, freezing would be
in response to water trapped between two vertical subparallel freezing planes. Ice-wedge ice
and tension-crack ice are frozen in such a
manner, and the petrofabrics of ice-wedge ice
are well known. However, if freezing took
place in a three-dimensional system of vertical
and horizontal shrinkage cracks, above the
lower permafrost surface, by withdrawal of
pore water from the adjacent clay blocks, the
ice petrofabrics and bubble patterns would be
expected to be basically similar, except for
orientation. The limited studies so far done
suggest that freezing was of pore water derived
from the adjacent blocks. No studies have yet
been carried out on through going vertical ice
veins.
Ice (Water) Quality
The freezing of water associated with permafrost growth, whether pore water or bulk water,
involves some selective ionic rejection. This
can be shown for aggrading permafrost (Mac-

CAN. GEOTECH. J.

VOL.

12, 1975

FIG. 1. Reticulate ice veins in 10-m high bluff, Pelly Island, N.W.T. The section is dug
back to frozen ground. The primary ice veins are horizontal, the secondary are vertical. Note
the shovel for scale.

kay and Lavkulich 1974). Consequently, if a

vcrtical crack which was filled with bulk water
froze downwards, the ionic gradients would be
expected to be vertical. If freezing were inwards, as with ice-wedge or tension-crack ice,
between two vertical freezing planes, the gradients would be expected to be horizontal. If
freezing were from pore water withdrawn from
the adjacent clay blocks, gradients would be
expected to be transverse to the ice veins in
question.

Water Content
As an added note, during the 1974 summer
field season, the writer was able to make additional observations of reticulate ice veins at
several localities along the Western Arctic
Coast. Figure 1 shows the base of a coastal
bluff, about 10 m high, at Pelly Island, N.W.T.
150 km northwest of Inuvik, N.W.T. The
primary veins were horizontal. Twelve clay
samples were collected from the section which
was dug back to frozen ground. The water
contents ranged from 19.6 to 22.4% and no
samples yielded excess water when thawed.

The total volume of vein ice was considerably

less than 10% of that of the section. As the
'frozen' clay was quite plastic, and easily dug
out with a trowel, unfrozen pore water at
below 0 OC can be inferred. If so, the pore
water, during pcrmafrost growth, would have
frozen over a temperature range below 0 OC,
and not at 0 OC. A similar section was examined near Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T.

Conclusion
McRoberts and Nixon have proposed some
interesting processes relating to ground ice in
general, and reticulate ice veins in particular.
Judging from the variety of ice veins which
can be seen in natural exposures, and from the
range of materials in which they occur, a
variety of processes of ice vein growth are
doubtless involved. It is suggested that further
studies of ice vein patterns, ice vein petrofabrics, and ice vein water quality may help
in an understanding of the genesis of reticulate
ice veins and the mechanisms proposed by
McRoberts and Nixon.

DISCUSSIONS

FIG.2. Reticulate ice veins which end, downwards, at a thaw unconformity. The section is
about 2 m high. The primary ice veins are nearly vertical. Garry Island, N.W.T.
BAULIN,V. V . 1972. On the origin of layer ice in the Yamal
Peninsula. (In Russian) Geocryological and Hydrogeological Research in Siberia, Academy of Sciences
of the U.S.S.R., Yakutsk, pp. 64-72.
LACHENBRUCH,
A. H. 1962. Mechanics of thermal contraction cracks and ice-wedge ploygons in permafrost.
Geol. Soc. Am. Spec. Pap. No. 70.

MACKAY,
J. R. 1974. Reticulate ice veins in permafrost,
northern Canada. Can. Geotech. J. 11,pp. 230-237.
MACKAY,J. R., and LAVKULICH,
L. M. 1974. Ionic and
oxygen isotopic fractionation in permafrost growth.
Geol. Surv. Can., Pap. 74-lB, pp. 98-99.