Vegetation and Soil Profiles in some Solifluction and Mound Areas in Alaska

Abstract

During the summer of 1949 while investigating grasslands and other types of vegetation in Alaska, opportunities became available to compare a number of and non-solifluction areas. The main areas studied (see map, fig. 1) were located on Eagle Summit (station E) on the Steese Highway between Fairbanks and Circle Hot Springs, in Mount McKinley National Park (station M), near Healy (station H), in the Craigie Creek Valley (station C) in the Talkeetna Mountains, and in the vicinity of Kotzebue (station K). Solifluction is widespread in the mountains in various parts of Alaska (Cairnes '12, Capps '13, '40, Eakin '16, Leffingwell '15, '19, Mertie '17, Sharp '42, Smith '10, '17, Taber '43), but little information is available concerning the vegetation of areas. The purpose of the present paper is to point out some relationships between the vegetation, the soil profile, and in Alaska. The term solifluction was proposed by Andersson ('06) for the slow flowing from higher to lower elevations upon frozen ground (tjdle) of masses of soil material saturated with water. Salomon-