294 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1960 



them. These tasks take time, and proper planning is a prerequisite 

 for efficient operation. 



Camouflage is a problem on the tundra. Little relief or change in 

 vegetation is available. Tracks of heavy vehicles or paths stand out 

 in marked contrast for years. It is easy to see in aerial photographs 

 footpaths and dog-sled trails abandoned 10 years or more ago. 



Mortar and shell fire, land mines, shaped charges, and other ex- 

 plosives undoubtedly respond to changes in the character of 

 permafrost, but no data are available to the author. 



FUTURE RESEARCH NEEDED 



Throughout the foregoing pages brief reference is made to aspects 

 of permafrost or effects of permafrost on engineering, geologic, bio- 

 logic, and other scientific problems for which few factual data are 

 available. However, in the event that the reader has received the 

 impression that a great deal is known of permafrost, it is pointed out 

 that the science of frozen ground is relatively young and immature. 

 It has lacked a coordinated and comprehensive investigation by geo- 

 logists, engineers, physicists, botanists, climatologists, and other 

 scientists. It is barely in the beginning of the descriptive stages, and 

 only now is it receiving the world-wide attention it deserves. 



As our civilization presses northward, the practical needs of con- 

 struction, water supply, sewage disposal, trafficability, and other en- 

 gineering problems must be solved speedily and economically. Our 

 present knowledge is relatively meager, and trial-and-error methods 

 are being used much too frequently. Practical laboratory experi- 

 ments (Taber, 1930a, 1930b) and controlled field experimental 

 stations, such as that at Fairbanks, Alaska ( Jaillite, 1947), are needed 

 in various situations in the permafrost areas. From these stations 

 methods and techniques of construction can be standardized and ap- 

 propriate steps taken to meet a particular situation. Such labora- 

 tories must be supplemented with Arctic research stations such as are 

 found in the Soviet Union where more than 30 natural-science labora- 

 tories with permanent facilities and year-around basic studies in all 

 phases of Arctic science are going on. The Arctic Research Labora- 

 tory at Point Barrow (Shelesnyak, 1948) is a start in the right direc- 

 tion. The academic approach must accompany the practical approach 

 if satisfactory solution of the problem is to be found. 



To name all the specific topics for future research would make this 

 paper unduly long, as no phase of permafrost is well known. How- 

 ever, the author reiterates that the problems cannot be solved ade- 

 quately until the phenomena of heat flow in all natural and artificial 

 materials in the earth are understood and correlated with insolation, 

 atmospheric conditions, geothermal gradients, and the complex sur- 



