54 
Streamside 
Streamside 
Slumping Bank 
Drained 
Pergelic Cryaquepts 
| 
Lake Margin 
Flat Area 
ZX Nistic Pergelic 
Cryaquepts and 
Pergelic Cryaquepts 
igh Center Polygons 
H 
GPa aplic Cryaquolls 
Calcic Pergelic Cryoborolls and 
Pergelic Cryoborolls 
Histic Pergelic Cryaquepts and 
Pergelic Cryaquolls 
Ruptic Histic Pergelic Cryaquepts and 
Pergelic Cryaquepts 
ae Pergelic Cryaquolls 
Dennis Kuklok, Arctic Environmental Information and Data Center, University of Alaska 
Figzeal: 
Schematic representation of the Prudhoe Bay terrain showing the 
spatial relationships among soils and terrain types. See Webber and Walker (this 
volume) for relationships with vegetation types. As a consequence of the thaw 
lakes, which continue to modify the land surface, both landforms and their 
soils range widely in age (Brown 1965). Radiocarbon dates of 9330 + 150 
Y.B.P. and 8690 + 145 Y.B.P. were obtained from reworked organic materials 
beneath lake bottom deposits in a large active thaw lake in the vicinity of the 
Tundra Biome study area. These organic materials are believed to have been 
derived from a land surface(s) into which the thaw lake has expanded. 
interfluves with wide expanses of patterned tun- 
dra and relatively featureless, very wet, drained, 
or intermittent lake basins (Fig. 1). 
Because of the large mapping scale and the 
intimate association between ground pattern and 
soil type, most of the 10 relief elements recog- 
nized on the soils map (Plate |!) are ground 
pattern forms. The characteristics of the forms 
generally follow a microrelief classification 
system developed for the Barrow tundra (Carey 
1972). Certain modifications and additions to 
this classification were required by the Prudhoe 
Bay terrain. 
The terrain-relief classes used in Plate | are 
based on the character of the ground surface (its 
pattern or lack of pattern) and the amount of 
