Arctic Siting and Surveying

Most of the vast Arctic is a cold, barren desert involving difficulties in the transport and support of personnel, together with their essential supplies of fuel, shelter, food, materials, and work equipment. The general geophysical and environmental characteristics of the several divergent Arctic regions are described briefly, and special aspects of siting and surveying are examined in greater detail. Advance consideration of local daylight-darkness, environmental and permafrost characteristics, affecting travel, support and work operations, permits making the best adaption of plans and tentative schedules to conditions that are likely to involve man-hour and cost multipliers from 1.5 to 20 times those for similar operations in the inhabited Temperate Zone. The economic potentiality of the Arctic is but slightly known and subject to widely divergent speculative estimates. The safety and feasibility of greater exploration and possible commercial developments have substantially improved, as secondary results of the construction of defense installations.