ABSTRACT
Palsa-scale frost mounds have great potential in paleoecological studies and for monitoring the effects of global change on permafrost in peatlands of the northern hemisphere. Incorporation of such applications into the larger scientific enterprise is jeopardized, however, by the overly complex and exotic terminology employed by periglacial geomorphologists. The term palsa should be used only in a morphologic context but can be modified adjectivally to communicate genetic information. Palsa-scale frost mounds can be divided into four genetic categories: ice-segregation, hydrostatic, hydraulic, and buoyant. Criteria for recognition of the genetic varieties include stratigraphy, ice fabrics, and patterns of ionic concentration and bubble inclusions. Palsas may be of aggradational or degradational origin, although these distinctions may be blurred in some cases.
