Injection ice

Injection ice (also known as intrusion ice ) is a form of ground ice that was formed by water penetrating the ground or rock. This water is usually under pressure, for example cryostatic or artesian pressure . Injection ice can form in porous loose rock or in cracked or fissured rock. The formation is favored when water is enclosed in cracks or when it is cooled very quickly. Normally this is groundwater, but it can form on river banks when the water level is high if water penetrates laterally along the lower limit of the thawing soil into the permafrost soil.

The freezing of the penetrating water often raises the surface of the earth, the best known form of this is pingos . There is a certain analogy to the formation of intrusions in rock, which is why the terms “ sill ” or “ dyke ” are also used for such forms of ice.

literature

• Hugh M. French: The Periglacial Environment. 3rd edition, Wiley-Verlag, Chichester 2007, ISBN 0-470-86588-1

Web links

• geodz.com: Injection ice
• National Snow and Ice Data Center, Frozen Ground Data Center: English Language Glossary of Permafrost and Related Ground-Ice Terms.