28
ERDC/CRREL TR-02-10
Figure 9. Stratigraphy for the Kuparuk Basin, winter
of 1996-97. The locations are shown on Figure 8.
Symbols are from the International Classification for
Snow on the Ground (Colbeck et al. 1992). Note the
two to four layers of depth hoar at the base of the
snow, capped in most cases by wind slabs and/or
melt crusts.
Because most of the vegetation of the Kuparuk consists of grasses, sedges, and
low shrubs, wind transport of snow is common (Benson and Sturm 1993). Tem-
perature plays a more subtle but important role, determining the extent of depth
hoar growth (a coarse-textured type of snow at the base of the snowpack formed
through metamorphic processes), the hardness of slabs deposited by the wind,
and the number and spatial continuity of melt crusts. While the basic functional
relationships between the weather and the snow cover stratigraphy are known
(i.e., longer and more-intense snowfalls produce thicker snow layers), an infinite
number of weather sequences are possible. The same set of weather events com-
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