"Frozen in Time: Permafrost and Engineering Problems" is a previously unpublished work by Siemon W. Muller (1900-1970), author of the first English-language book about perennially frozen ground. Professor Muller stopped working on the nearly completed manuscript in the early 1960s, and for reasons unknown set it aside about the time of the First International Conference on Permafrost in 1963. It remained frozen for several decades, until it was eventually discovered in his files.Upon careful reading, the manuscript was found to offer an advanced and unusually comprehensive treatment of permafrost science and associated engineering problems. Editors French and Nelson guided this landmark manuscript through the last phase of revision, provided context through an interpretive introduction, and finally brought it to the publication stage. Intended as a comprehensive revision and update of the 1947 edition of Mullers classic "Permafrost or Permanently Frozen Ground and Related Engineering Problems", this book reads like a how-to manual for engineering personnel working in pioneering or primitive circumstances.Like its predecessor, the book reviews the large Russian-language body of literature devoted to permafrost, but also covers work published in English during the intervening years.
It addresses topics such as basic scientific knowledge about perennially frozen ground and the engineering problems associated with it, the geography of permafrost, related elements of landscape science and ecology, periglacial geomorphology, and the physics of frozen ground. This book serves as a valuable historical document, and will also be useful for those seeking basic knowledge about permafrost and approximate methods for coping with associated engineering problems.