Editing Permafrost (section)

== History of scientific research ==
Between the middle of the 19th century and the middle of the 20th century, most of the literature on basic permafrost science and the engineering aspects of permafrost was written in Russian. One of the earliest written reports describing the existence of permafrost dates to [[1684]], when [[well]] excavation efforts in [[Yakutsk]] were stumped by its presence.<ref name="Chu2020" />{{rp|25}} A significant role in the initial permafrost research was played by [[Alexander von Middendorff]] (1815–1894) and [[Karl Ernst von Baer]], a [[Baltic German]] scientist at the [[University of Königsberg]], and a member of the [[St Petersburg Academy of Sciences]]. Baer began publishing works on permafrost in 1838 and is often considered the "founder of scientific permafrost research." Baer laid the foundation for modern permafrost terminology by compiling and analyzing all available data on ground ice and permafrost.<ref name="King-edt">{{cite journal |last1=King |first1=Lorenz |date=2001 |title=Materialien zur Kenntniss des unvergänglichen Boden-Eises in Sibirien, compiled by Baer in 1843 |url=http://geb.uni-giessen.de/geb/volltexte/2006/3649/pdf/BaerMaterialien-2001.pdf |journal=Berichte und Arbeiten aus der Universitätsbibliothek und dem Universitätsarchiv Giessen |language=german |volume=51 |pages=1–315 |access-date=2021-07-27}}</ref>
[[File:K.E.vonBaer 1840 03.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.2|Southern limit of permafrost in [[Eurasia]] according to [[Karl Ernst von Baer]] (1843), and other authors.]]

Baer is also known to have composed the world's first permafrost [[textbook]] in 1843, {{lang|de|Materialien zur Kenntniss des unvergänglichen Boden-Eises in Sibirien}} (''Materials for the study of the perennial ground-ice in Siberia''), written in his native German. However, it was not printed then, and a Russian translation was not ready until 1942. The original German textbook was believed to be lost until the [[manuscript|typescript]] from 1843 was discovered in the library archives of the [[University of Giessen]]. The 234-page text was available online, with additional maps, [[preface]] and comments.<ref name="King-edt" /> Notably, Baer's southern limit of permafrost in [[Eurasia]] drawn in 1843 corresponds well with the actual southern limit verified by modern research.<ref name="Brown1997" /><ref name="King-edt" />

Beginning in 1942, [[Siemon William Muller]] delved into the relevant Russian literature held by the [[Library of Congress]] and the [[United States Geological Survey Library|U.S. Geological Survey Library]] so that he was able to furnish the government an engineering [[field guide]] and a technical report about permafrost by 1943.<ref name="Walker2010">{{cite journal |last=Walker |first=H. Jesse |date=December 2010 |title=''Frozen in Time. Permafrost and Engineering Problems'' Review |journal=[[Arctic (journal)|Arctic]] |volume=63 |issue=4 |page=477 |doi=10.14430/arctic3340 |doi-access=free}}</ref> That report coined the English term as a contraction of permanently frozen ground,<ref name="USGSRay">{{cite web |last=Ray |first=Luis L. |title=Permafrost – USGS (United States Geological Survey) Library Publications Warehouse |url=https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/70039262/report.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170502040613/https://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/70039262/report.pdf |archive-date=2017-05-02 |access-date=November 19, 2018}}</ref> in what was considered a direct translation of the Russian term {{lang|ru-Latn|vechnaia merzlota}} ({{langx|ru|link=no|вечная мерзлота}}). In 1953, this translation was criticized by another USGS researcher Inna Poiré, as she believed the term had created unrealistic expectations about its stability:<ref name="Chu2020">{{cite book |last=Chu |first=Pei-Yi |title=The Life of Permafrost: A History of Frozen Earth in Russian and Soviet Science |publisher=[[University of Toronto]] Press |date=2020 |jstor=10.3138/j.ctv1bzfp6j |isbn=978-1-4875-1424-2 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.3138/j.ctv1bzfp6j }}</ref>{{rp|3}} more recently, some researchers have argued that "perpetually refreezing" would be a more suitable translation.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peskoe-Yang |first1=Lynne |title=An ode to Arctic permafrost |journal=Science |volume=379 |issue=6639 |date=30 March 2023 |pages=380–383 |pmid=12532013 |doi=10.1126/science.adf6999 |bibcode=2023Sci...379.1306P |s2cid=257836768 }}</ref> The report itself was classified (as U.S. Army. Office of the Chief of Engineers, ''Strategic Engineering Study'', no. 62, 1943),<ref name="USGSRay" /><ref name="USGS1943">{{cite journal |author1=[[United States Geological Survey|U.S. Geological Survey]] |author2=[[United States Army Corps of Engineers]] |author3=[[Military Intelligence Division (United States)|Strategic Intelligence Branch]] |year=1943 |title=Permafrost or permanently frozen ground and related engineering problems |journal=Strategic Engineering Study |issue=62 |pages=231 |oclc=22879846}}</ref> until a revised version was released in 1947, which is regarded as the first North American treatise on the subject.<ref name="Walker2010" /><ref name="Muller1947">{{cite book |last=Muller |first=Siemon William |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wQQhAAAAMAAJ |title=Permafrost. Or, Permanently Frozen Ground and Related Engineering Problems |publisher=Edwards |year=1947 |isbn=978-0-598-53858-1 |location=[[Ann Arbor, Michigan]] |oclc=1646047}}</ref>
[[File:Schuur 2022 permafrost carbon literature.jpeg|thumb|The annual number of scientific research papers published on the subject of permafrost carbon has grown from next to nothing around 1990 to around 400 by 2020.<ref name="Schuur2022" />]]
Between 11 and 15 November 1963, the First International Conference on Permafrost took place on the grounds of [[Purdue University]] in the American town of [[West Lafayette, Indiana]]. It involved 285 participants (including "engineers, manufacturers and builders" who attended alongside the researchers) from a range of countries ([[Argentina]], [[Austria]], Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Japan, [[Norway]], [[Poland]], Sweden, Switzerland, the US and the [[USSR]]). This marked the beginning of modern scientific collaboration on the subject. Conferences continue to take place every five years. During the Fourth conference in 1983, a special meeting between the "Big Four" participant countries (US, USSR, China, and Canada) officially created the [[International Permafrost Association]].<ref>{{cite web |title=History |url=https://www.permafrost.org/history/ |publisher=[[International Permafrost Association]] |access-date=14 August 2023}}</ref>

In recent decades, permafrost research has attracted more attention than ever due to its role in [[climate change]]. Consequently, there has been a massive acceleration in published [[scientific literature]]. Around 1990, almost no papers containing the words "permafrost" and "carbon" were released: by 2020, around 400 such papers were published yearly.<ref name="Schuur2022" />