Dear Colleague:
A striking full-color map showing permafrost and ground ice over the Arctic
and surrounding continental land masses has been released by the U.S.
Geological Survey and was displayed at the American Geophysical Union
meeting in San Francisco this past week. The map gives a birds-eye view
from a polar projection and includes most of the northern hemisphere
including the Tibet Plateau and mountain permafrost in the European
mountains. It was compiled by an international team led by the USGS, the
Geological Survey of Canada, and the Committee of Geology of the Russian
Federation.
"This compilation will help researchers to document the effect of global
environmental change," said Bonnie McGregor, USGS Associate Director.
"This is the first time that data on the entire North Polar region and
adjacent lands has been compiled into a single map. It provides consistent
and current information on the location and extent of long-term frost and
ice in the northern hemisphere," McGregor said.
The map, titled "Circum-Arctic Map of Permafrost and Ground Ice
Conditions," USGS Circum-Pacific Map Series CP-45, at a scale of
1:10,000,000 was prepared by the International Permafrost Association, in
cooperation with the Circum-Pacific Council for Energy and Mineral
Resources.
The map was unveiled in a poster session at the AGU Fall meetings in San
Francisco on December 11, 1997 at the poster session in honor of A.L.
Washburn by its lead editor, Jerry Brown. It can be ordered for $4.00 plus
$3.50 handling from the USGS. Please call 1-800-USA-MAPS for more
information on ordering.