What is the meaning of permafrost?
The word may lead your thoughts to the shivering conditions inside a permanently frozen deep freeze unit. But permafrost is a geological term belonging to ecologists and earth scientists. It refers to a ground condition almost as severe as the inside of a deep freezer. In polar regions, the summer sun stays above the horizon for much of the time. But despite the long hours of sunshine, the polar summer is not as warm as midsummer in the tropics and temperate zones. And the polar summer day is followed by a polar winter night in which the sun scarcely rises above the horizon for months at a time. This type of climate creates a ground condition known as permafrost. The Antarctic is a region of perpetual winter and much„of the ground remains buried year round below a massive icecap. Here; permafrost occurs only on a few favored shores and islands. It also occurs in a few Alpine regions of the temperate zones. But the earth’s major permafrost region is within the Arctic Circle, in those ar
