Original paper
The term ’palsa’
Seppälä, Matti
Zeitschrift für Geomorphologie Volume 16 Issue 4 (1972), p. 463 - 463
6 references
published: Dec 18, 1972
Open Access (paper may be downloaded free of charge)
Abstract
Since the word palsa continually appears in periglacial literature in a number of different forms I have considered necessary to define this term more exactly and to suggest ways in which it may be used more uniformly. The term palsa was originally used by the Lapps and northern Finns and in their languages (Lappish and Finnish) means a hummock rising out of a bog with a core of ice. Periglacial scholars have shown the phenomenon to be a peat mound with perennial frost and have adopted the word as a scientific term. Palsas are to be found in areas of sporadic or discontinuous permafrost where peat, with its excellent insulating properties, has preserved the frozen core for several years. In Fennoscandia, Alaska and Canada there can be found palsas of which the surface is peat but which have a mineral core (mostly silt). These are most nearly to be regarded as some kind of intermediate form between a palsa and a pingo although in origin they resemble paisas. The term pingo should be used only to indicate earth hummocks formed of mineral substances (with no covering of peat) and ice (inside of which there may be liquid water under hydrostatic pressure). In areas where pingos are to be found the permafrost is much more uniform than in areas of paisas. In the latter case permafrost is usually only to be found in the palsas themselves. Swedish scholars have produced a number of works of research on paisas as they are encountered in abundance in the Swedish parts of Lapland. For this reason the Swedish form of the word, pals and also palse (declined palsen, palsar, palsarna\ has spread considerably and, as a result, other scholars who do not understand Swedish have come to use the word in a number of different forms; some have even believed that the word was Swedish in origin. Most Swedish scholars now use the form palsa in English texts. On the basis of this I would recommend that in English and German, possibly in French, too, the form palsa (phonetic transcription [palsa]) should be used with the plural palsas. In German it should be declined as a neuter word. The term palsa indicates, then, a geomorphological formation. Bogs in which such palsas encountered might suitably be termed palsa bogs.
Keywords
palsa • periglacial • Fennoscandia • Alaska • Canada