New England Soil Profiles
Ice Wedge Casts
Download soil profile locations for viewing with Google Earth (500 KB KMZ file, requires Google Earth to be installed).
(Link to Site)

 

Photos by Jim Turenne, photo location - Hain Brothers gravel pit in Windham, Ct.
http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?z=18&n=4619590&e=735746&s=50&size=l&datum=nad83&layer=DRG25

 Ice Wedge Cast located in a gravel pit in North Kingston, RI

Photo by Jon Boothroyd, URI Department of Geosciences

Map Location: http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=41.54976&lon=-71.50912&datum=nad83&u=6&layer=DRG25&size=l&s=50

Ice wedge casts are evidence of permafrost conditions which geologists interpret occurred in the the Northeast, these features formed immediately after the landscape deglaciated.
 

For more information on Ice Wedge Casts refer to:

Stone, J.R. and Ashley, G.M., 1992, Ice-wedge casts, pingo scars, and the drainage of Glacial Lake Hitchcock: In, Robinson, P. and Brady, J.B., eds., Guidebook for Field Trips in the Connecticut Valley Region of Massachusetts and Adjacent States, v. 2 (84th Annual meeting of the New England Intercollegiate Geological Conference), Amherst Massachusetts, University of Massachusetts, Geology Department, Contribution 66, p. 305-331.

Info from Fish and Wildlife Service: http://arctic.fws.gov/permcycl.htm

 

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