Permafrost

The map shows the location of the continuous permafrost zone and the discontinuous permafrost zone including areas of wide spread permafrost, areas of scattered permafrost and permafrost areas in the Cordillera. The map also indicates for six locations (Inuvik, Yellowknife, Thompson, Resolute, Rankin Inlet and Schefferville) the thickness of permafrost in metres and the ground temperature. Permafrost is a term used to describe the thermal condition of earth materials, such as soil and rock, when their temperature remains below 0 degrees Celsius continuously for more than 1 year. One-half of Canada's land surface is underlain by permafrost. The permafrost region is divided into two zones: continuous in the north and discontinuous in the south. In the continuous zone, permafrost exists everywhere beneath the land surface and varies in thickness from about 100 metres at the southern limit to 1000 metres in the Far North. The active layer usually extends down to the permafrost. In the discontinuous zone, some areas have permafrost beneath the land surface and other areas are free of permafrost. The distribution ranges from widespread in the north, where permafrost areas predominate, to scattered, where permafrost occurs in islands in generally unfrozen terrain. It varies in thickness from a few metres or less at the southern limit to about 100 metres at the boundary with the continuous zone. The active layer does not extend down to the permafrost in all places. South of the discontinuous zone, a few patches of permafrost exist in peatlands owing to unusual microclimatic and terrain conditions. The thickness of permafrost is influenced by such factors as soil and rock type, snow cover, and proximity to bodies of water. The values shown on the map were obtained by different methods such as direct observation in boreholes, mine shafts, and wells; ground-temperature measurements using thermocouple and thermistor cables; and geophysical methods, including seismic and resistivity. Other factors that affect permafrost conditions include relief, vegetation, hydrology, snow cover, fire, glacier ice, and soil and rock type.

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• Form Descriptors
• Government and Politics
• Nature and Environment
• Science and Technology
• hydrogeology
• hydrology
• permafrost

Additional Info

• Maturity Level 1 (54%)
• Maturity Level 2 (38%)
• Maturity Level 3 (0%)
• Maturity Level 4 (0%)
• Maturity Level 5 (0%)
• Maturity Level 6 (0%)

Field	Value
Last Updated	October 20, 2025, 03:44 (UTC)
Created	October 20, 2025, 03:44 (UTC)
Domain / Topic Domain or topic of the dataset being cataloged.	Biota, Boundaries, Climatology Meteorology Atmosphere, Elevation, Environment
Title Title for the Dataset.	Permafrost
Description A description of the dataset.	The map shows the location of the continuous permafrost zone and the discontinuous permafrost zone including areas of wide spread permafrost, areas of scattered permafrost and permafrost areas in the Cordillera. The map also indicates for six locations (Inuvik, Yellowknife, Thompson, Resolute, Rankin Inlet and Schefferville) the thickness of permafrost in metres and the ground temperature. Permafrost is a term used to describe the thermal condition of earth materials, such as soil and rock, when their temperature remains below 0 degrees Celsius continuously for more than 1 year. One-half of Canada's land surface is underlain by permafrost. The permafrost region is divided into two zones: continuous in the north and discontinuous in the south. In the continuous zone, permafrost exists everywhere beneath the land surface and varies in thickness from about 100 metres at the southern limit to 1000 metres in the Far North. The active layer usually extends down to the permafrost. In the discontinuous zone, some areas have permafrost beneath the land surface and other areas are free of permafrost. The distribution ranges from widespread in the north, where permafrost areas predominate, to scattered, where permafrost occurs in islands in generally unfrozen terrain. It varies in thickness from a few metres or less at the southern limit to about 100 metres at the boundary with the continuous zone. The active layer does not extend down to the permafrost in all places. South of the discontinuous zone, a few patches of permafrost exist in peatlands owing to unusual microclimatic and terrain conditions. The thickness of permafrost is influenced by such factors as soil and rock type, snow cover, and proximity to bodies of water. The values shown on the map were obtained by different methods such as direct observation in boreholes, mine shafts, and wells; ground-temperature measurements using thermocouple and thermistor cables; and geophysical methods, including seismic and resistivity. Other factors that affect permafrost conditions include relief, vegetation, hydrology, snow cover, fire, glacier ice, and soil and rock type.
Tags / Keywords Keywords/tags categorizing the dataset.	Form Descriptors Government and Politics Nature and Environment Science and Technology hydrogeology hydrology permafrost
Format (CSV, XLS, TXT, PDF, etc) File format of the dataset.
Dataset Size Dataset size in megabytes.
Metadata Identifier Metadata identifier – can be used as the unique identifier for catalogue entry
Published Date Published date of the dataset.	1978-01-01
Time Period Data Span (start date) Start date of the data in the dataset.
Time Period Data Span (end date) End date of time data in the dataset.
GeoSpatial Area Data Span A spatial region or named place the dataset covers.

Field	Value
Access category Type of access granted for the dataset (open, closed, service, etc).
License License used to access the dataset.	Open Government Licence - Canada
Limits on use Limits on use of data.
Location Location of the dataset.	https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/ab0c22c6-bbc2-5838-9b6e-7d83c61ba91d
Data Service Data service for accessing a dataset.
Owner Owner of the dataset.	Natural Resources Canada | Ressources naturelles Canada
Contact Point Who to contact regarding access?
Contact Point Email The email to contact regarding access?
Publisher Publisher of the dataset.
Publisher Email Email of the publisher.	[email protected]
Author Author of the dataset.
Author Email Email of the author.	[email protected]
Accessed At Date the data and metadata was accessed.

Field	Value
Identifier Unique identifier for the dataset.
Language Language(s) of the dataset
Link to dataset description A URL to an external document describing the dataset.
Persistent Identifier Data is identified by a persistent identifier.
Globally Unique Identifier Data is identified by a persistent and globally unique identifier.
Contains data about individuals Does the data hold data about individuals?
Contains data about identifiable individuals Does the data hold identifiable data about individual?
Contains Indigenous Data Does the data hold data about Indigenous communities?
Portal Type Platform type of the source portal.

Field	Value
Version Version of the datatset	None
Source Source of the dataset.	None
Version notes Version notes about the dataset.
Is version of another dataset Link to dataset that it is a version of.
Other versions Link to datasets that are versions of it.
Provenance Text Provenance Text of the data.
Provenance URL Provenance URL of the data.
Temporal resolution Describes how granular the date/time data in the dataset is.
GeoSpatial resolution in meters Describes how granular (in meters) geospatial data is in the dataset.
GeoSpatial resolution (in regions) Describes how granular (in regions) geospatial data is in the dataset.

Field	Value
Indigenous Community Permission Who holds the Indigenous Community Permission. Who to contact regarding access to a dataset that has data about Indigenous communities.
Community Permission Community permission (who gave permission).
The Indigenous communities the dataset is about Indigenous communities from which data is derived.

Field	Value
Number of data rows If tabular dataset, total number of rows.
Number of data columns If tabular dataset, total number of unique columns.
Number of data cells If tabular dataset, total number of cells with data.
Number of data relations If RDF dataset, total number of triples.
Number of entities If RDF dataset, total number of entities.
Number of data properties If RDF dataset, total number of unique properties used by the triples.
Data quality Describes the quality of the data in the dataset.
Metric for data quality A metric used to measure the quality of the data, such as missing values or invalid formats.

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