When snow above the
active layer melts, the water remains on the surface of the soil. Water cannot
be absorbed by the permafrost (layer of permanent frozen ground below the
active layer) and leaves the top layer wet and soggy. Evaporation of water is
also impossible because of the tundra's cool air. The arctic tundra landscape
is formed from the freezing and refreezing of this soggy soil. There are five
distinguishable types of land formations by freezing water: pingos, frost
boils, bumpy ground, polygons, and stripes.
Pingos are hills formed by pools of
water that were trapped by permafrost and polygons are geometric land shapes
outlined by cracks filled with water. The process, in which the water causing
the tundra's soggy ground flows downhill, is called solifluction.
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