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Review

Cryogenic Soil—Product of Mineral Weathering Processes

by
Ze Zhang
1,2,*,†,
Jinbang Zhai
3,†,
Andrey Melnikov
4,
Shengrong Zhang
1 and
Xianglong Li
1
1
School of Civil Engineering, Institute of Cold Regions Science and Engineering, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
2
State Key Laboratory of Frozen Soil Engineering, Northwest Institute of Eco-Environment and Resources, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Lanzhou 730000, China
3
School of Transportation, Institute of Cold Regions Science and Engineering, Northeast Forestry University, Harbin 150040, China
4
Melnikov Permafrost Institute, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Science, 117997 Yakutsk, Russia
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
†
These authors contributed equally to this work.
Minerals 2022, 12(7), 805; https://doi.org/10.3390/min12070805
Submission received: 3 May 2022 / Revised: 4 June 2022 / Accepted: 16 June 2022 / Published: 24 June 2022
Browse Figures
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Abstract

:
Since the Quaternary, the alternate climate of dry and wet, cold and warm, and the emergence of glacial and interglacial periods have led to great changes in the global environment and climate. As an event closely related to cold climate, cryogenic soil has important reference significance for the study of climate change in a certain region and time period. The research on cryogenic soils mainly focuses on the following three aspects: particle size composition, surface morphology and mineral composition. Through the study of the relevant literature, we find that the correlation coefficient of particle size composition before and after freeze-thaw is used to determine the cause of cryogenic weathering. Due to the singleness of judgment conditions, the result is difficult to be convincing; It is difficult to prove the microscopic morphology of the cause of cryogenic weathering from a single mineral of quartz. Therefore, it is necessary to start with more types of primary minerals, and analyze the differences in the particle shape and microscopic surface morphology of different types of primary minerals during the cryogenic weathering process. And on this basis, the typical mineral morphology of the cause of cryogenic weathering is comprehensively judged; Freeze-thaw has little effect on the mineral composition of the soil, but has a greater impact on the size of the mineral particles, and this size change corresponds to the phenomenon of particles silt-fication. The mineral composition also controls the geochemical composition, and the insignificance of the mineral-chemical composition in the process of cryogenic silt-fication increases the difficulty of judging the cause of cryogenic weathering.

1. Introduction

In the study of global change, the study of sediments (deep-sea sediments, loess sediments and ice cores, etc.) [1,2,3,4,5] has generally attracted people’s attention, and its research results have also greatly encouraged the process of global climate change research. Recently, under the background of global warming, research on the evolutionary process of the cryogenic environment and its response to climate change has become a hot spot. The fluctuating climates of wet, dry, cold and warm during the glacial and interglacial periods have caused dramatic changes in the global climate. One of the major scientific issues that the geoscientific community is concerned about is climate change and its impact on global ecosystems [6,7]. Cryogenic soils are the information carriers indicating this dynamic change process [8], and they also record the evolutionary law and development process of the cryogenic environment since the Quaternary.
Cryogenic processes are the dominant soil-forming processes for Cryogenic soil. Cryosols cover 7769 × 103 km2 in the northern circumpolar area [9]. Cryogenic soil mostly forms on frozen soil, and its soil forming process generally undergoes periodic freezing and thawing. During the cryogenic weathering (freezing and thawing), the fragmentation and aggregation of soil particles result in silt sized particles, which is a physical weathering phenomenon peculiar to Cryogenic soil [10,11,12,13,14]. The degree of siltylation of Cryogenic soil are directly associated to factors such as freeze-thaw intensity and duration, especially the long-term fluctuating climate with alternating cold and warm season will promote its development process [15,16,17]. Therefore, as an event intimately related to the cold climate, it is clear from the above analysis that the process of siltylation of Cryogenic soils have an irreplaceable role in reconstructing the climatic conditions of a region and a period, and are an important reference for reconstructing historical permafrost boundaries and studying climate change.
Due to the influence of cold climate conditions, the formation and development process of Cryogenic soil are very slow, which has weak biochemical weathering as compared with soils in warmer climates: for example, the decomposition and leaching of organic matter is weak, the physical weathering effect surpassed the chemical weathering effect, and the composition of minerals is similar to the parent material composition of soil, etc. [18,19]. There are three representative types of Cryogenic soils formed in different soil forming settings or environments:Turbic Cryosols, Organic Cryosols, Static Cryosols [20]. There are four types of fabric (micro-structure) of Cryogenic soils: Laminar cryogenic fabric; Disjunctive dislocation of cryogenic fabric; Organic debris involved in the formation of cryogenic fabric; Voids formed by ice within cryoturbated organogenic matrix [21]. Except for the siltylation process of the particles, the mineral and chemical composition of the particles does not change with the climate fluctuations and time changes during the formation of Cryogenic soils [11,12,13,15,16]. Given the immaturity of cryogenic soils, it is still difficult to define whether the soil has undergone a cryogenic (freeze-thaw) process, which also increases the difficulty of judging its depositional environment and evolution history. Therefore, the determination of the cryogenic weathering process would fill the gaps or contribute to the knowledge in the development of Quaternary geocryology, cryosphere environmental records.
A large number of studies have found that the physical weathering process of soil in the siltylation process is far greater than chemical weathering [12,13,14], and the overall mineral composition does not change much. The essence of soil particle size is the representation of mineral particle size in the soil. Therefore, in the siltylation process, the soil particles are caused by the fragmentation and aggregation of the mineral particles in the soil. That is to say, the soil mineral particles redistribute with the reorganization of the particle size composition. After in-depth research on the degree of siltylation of different graded soils in the process of cryogenic weathering (freezing and thawing), it is found that cryogenic silt-fication occurs in different types of soils, but due to the different grain composition of parent soils, the degree of siltylation is not the same [17,19]. This means that the degree of redistribution of soil minerals is related to the degree of cryogenic silt-fication. The final product of this cryogenic silt-fication is considered to be a silty soil with a high content of silty particles, so the cryogenesis is also considered to be one of the important causes of “periglacial loess” [13,14,22,23,24].
Therefore, from the perspective of mineralogy and geochemistry, we try to analyze the physical reorganization distribution law of cryogenic silt-fication, combined with the research methods of sedimentary geomorphology, to further understand the characteristics of the soil forming process of Cryogenic soil. An attempt is made to define the existence of a cryogenic weathering (freezing and thawing) process and to interpret the significance of sedimentary environment of Cryogenic soil on this basis. This research will contribute to the study of the Quaternary cryosphere environment, frozen soil and climate change.
During the development of Cryogenic soil, the freezing and thawing process is accompanied by the input and output of energy. Therefore, the fragmentation and aggregation of soil particles due to the change of their relatively stable state, which leads to the phenomenon of cryogenic silt-fication of the soil. Due to the different degrees of siltylation, the size of soil particles and the morphology, structure and properties of mineral particles have also changed to varying degrees. The triangular nomogram can be used to analyze and simulate the properties of soil mixtures [25]. The main research results in this field are primarily demonstrated in three aspects: particle size composition, surface morphology and mineral composition.

2. Particle Size Composition

The cryo-fragmentation of soil particles will change the particle size composition. In the process of cryogenic weathering, due to the change of temperature, there is a continuous exchange of material and energy between the soil and the external environment [26], and the liquid water, ice and vapor in the soil change with each other. The coarser soil particles with large voids, and the freezing of water in the voids into ice (volume change 9%) will cause the fragmentation of coarse particles [27] (Figure 1 and Figure 2), while the segregation ice will produce another external pressure to squeeze the particles during the freezing process, resulting in their fragmenting [28,29,30]. Changes in temperature cause deformation of the mineral material, and the greater the temperature change, the greater the stress [31,32]. The stress generated by mineral particles in this state can sometimes reach up to gigapascals [33,34]. Through a large number of experiments, it is found that when the vertical pressure is 0.2 MPa, the contact stress between two soil particles with a diameter of 1 mm can reach 500 MPa [10,15,35]. The fragmenting of soil particles only occurs in the relatively coarse particle size (≥silt size); while in clay minerals, a large number of water molecules exists in the state of bound water, and the unfrozen water content is higher than that in coarse particles, so fragmentation cannot occur [36].
In order to verify this contact stress, we did the inverse contact stress calculation of classical physics. That is, in the process of ice formation, if the volume of ice increases, it can cause the soil to generate 0.2 MPa to the outside, how much stress can be generated between particles. The PFC (Particle Flow Code-Discrete Element Simulation Analysis Software) test simulates placing a sphere of sand particles with a diameter of 1 mm in a ring sampler (618 × 20 mm), and applying a uniform pressure of 0.2 MPa on the top layer particles (Note: Since the loading here is equivalent loading, that is, a concentrated load of 0.1 N is loaded on each particle on the top layer). The contact stress is divided into 100 intervals with the minimum value (0.0 Pa) as the lower limit and the maximum value (6.913 × 108 Pa) as the upper limit. The number of contact stresses in each interval is counted, and then divided by the total number of contact stresses to obtain the percentage of the number of contact stresses in each interval in the total number of contact stresses (Figure 3). It can be seen from Figure 3 that the contact stress value is mostly about 5 × 108 Pa (500 MPa), and a small part is about 1 × 108 Pa (100 MPa). That is to say, under the influence of such a large contact stress and also under the influence of temperature stress, the primary silicate mineral particles (quartz, feldspar, etc.) in the soil can be completely broken.
The research results on the process of soil particle fragmenting under freezing and thawing are relatively unified, but there are still different research results on the interpretation of the aggregation process. Some researchers believe that the clay particles (colloidal particles) of soil under the action of freezing and thawing aggregate to form silt-sized aggregates, which is the result of chemical weathering under negative temperature [38,39,40], while others believe that it is related to the “cold forging joint” effect, that is, the huge stress generated at the contact point of soil mineral particles leads to the recrystallization process [23]. Others believe that the aggregation of soil particles is caused by the interaction between the two electron layers of soil particles [41,42]. (Figure 4 and Figure 5).
The fragmentation and aggregation of soil particles are indicated in the bidirectional change of particle size composition. The large-sized sand particles fragment and shift to the next particle size class, while the aggregated clay particles shift to the previous particle size class, resulting in the enrichment of soil particles to a certain particle group [14,17,24]. The particles with silt fraction are no longer fragmented and present a stable state. This is due to the small size of the powder particles and the inability of the water on the surface of the particles to enter the fractures. (Figure 6).
On the basis of these studies, the mechanism of soil particle fragmentation and aggregation is basically clear [37], and the siltylation phenomenon of Cryogenic soil are predominantly the enrichment of silt level, especially at 0.05–0.01 mm [14,17,22,44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53] (Figure 7). Based on these studies, the silt sized particles can be considered the most stable particles at the end product of the cryogenic physical weathering process. According to this assumption, the freeze-thaw test is carried out on the Loess with a high silt content. It is found that the change of silt particle is very small, which proves the stability of the silt particle size (0.01–0.05 mm) under the action of the freeze-thaw cycle. In addition, the intensity of soil siltylation under freezing and thawing is inevitably associated with the grading of soil. Under the same conditions, the degree of siltylation is: clay > sand > silty. On this basis, the existence of “boundary particle size” is found and verified, and “boundary particle size” is related to the crack size of mineral particles [14,22].
According to the different degree of siltylation, researchers have tried to use the correlation coefficient of particle size composition before and after freeze-thaw (the coefficient of the combination of particle size composition content before and after freeze-thaw with freeze-thaw times) to determine the cause of cryogenic weathering, but the result is difficult to be convincing due to the singleness of judgment conditions.

3. Surface Morphology

At present, it is generally acknowledged that the morphological characteristics of quartz mineral particle surface have identification significance for its sedimentary environment and evolutionary history. A large number of systematic research data has been accumulated in the study of terrestrial material composition, diagenesis, glacial environment, groundwater environment, aeolian environment and high-energy chemical environment [16,54,55,56,57,58,59,60,61]. In terms of cryogenic weathering, this research primarily focuses on moraine accumulation in glacial environments and generalized ice water accumulation (glacier river sedimentary, glacier lake sedimentary and glacier ocean sedimentary). Although the research in the process of simple cryogenic weathering (freezing and thawing) is not a separate system, the research results are relatively rich.
The surface morphology of cryogenic weathering loam (Northern European Plain of Russia) and cryogenic weathering silt containing ice (Northern Yaku Republic) was studied. The surface of the quartz particles has a series of alternating high-ridged platforms, and there are etch pits in the form of “tooth decay” with cryogenic weathering characteristics [11]. This microscopic morphology has also been found in the Spitsbergen Peninsula in the Svalbard and in the fine-grained sediments of the Antarctic moraine [62]. This microscopic surface structure morphology is also considered to be the cause of the formation of micro-cracks on the surface of quartz minerals [14,63], and this microscopic morphology also appears on the surface of some quartz and feldspars after freezing and thawing [64]. However, it cannot be verified that this microscopic morphology is a unique surface structure morphology of quartz mineral due to cryogenic weathering.
From the current research results, it is difficult to prove the microscopic morphology of the cause of cryogenesis from quartz alone. Therefore, it is necessary to start with more types of primary minerals, analyze the changes in particle shape and microscopic surface morphology of different types of primary minerals during the cryogenic weathering process, and comprehensively determine the typical mineral morphology of their cryogenic weathering on this basis.

4. Mineral Composition

The soil suspensions are subjected to freeze-thaw cycles, and a large number of cryp-tocrystalline are found in the mineral composition, and there is a tendency for particles aggregation to increase, which is due to some primary minerals with large-size particles (such as quartz, feldspar, amphibole, pyroxene, etc.) in the soil are fragment and fragmentation to form smaller-size mineral particles under the effect of cryogenic weathering [65,66].
Generally, the size of the mineral particles in soil is: quartz > feldspar > heavy minerals > clay minerals. Therefore, the fragmentation degree of quartz affected by cryogenic weathering is more severe than that of other minerals (feldspar, heavy minerals, clay minerals) [12,22,67,68]. Some other primary minerals with smaller particles (for example: magnetite, limonite, biotite and muscovite, etc.) show aggregation during the cryogenic weathering process. Konishev pointed out that “the aggregation process of soil particles during the freeze-thaw cycle is a co-product of the fragmentation process”, and low-temperature aggregation mainly occurs between common clay minerals such as quartz and orthoclase and insoluble salts. After investigating the fragmentation of minerals with different particle sizes, it is found that the silt minerals particles are the most stable during the cryogenic weathering process, which is due to the few lattice defects of minerals with silt particles [14,17,24,40].
Clay minerals also change during cryogenic weathering, but the change is slightly different from that of primary minerals. Zigert [69] found special mixed layer clay minerals (Mica-Montmorillonite mixed layer minerals, Illite-Montmorillonite mixed layer minerals and Hydromica-Vermiculite mixed layer minerals) in the silty mud of the active layer in the central Yaku Republic of Russia. In addition, halloysite (also known as polyhydrated kaolin) was accidentally found in the active layer, indicating that kaolinite may be hydrated in the active layer [12,70]. This has attracted extensive attention. Therefore, Konishchev et al. [52] conducted cryogenic weathering (freezing and thawing) experiments on single clay minerals such as montmorillonite, kaolin and polyhydrated kaolin, and found that the particle size of minerals decreased after the freeze-thaw cycle. However, through X-ray diffraction and infrared spectroscopy analysis, it is found that the crystal lattice of these minerals is basically unchanged, but only a few mineral crystal lattices are destroyed (cryptocrystalline), which is similar to the change of primary minerals in the cryogenic weathering process. In soils with more complex mineral composition, clay minerals undergo ion exchange, especially in soils with higher montmorillonite content, the cation exchange process is more intense, which will accelerate the mineralization of the soil [12,13,71]. After freezing and thawing the soil with high content of montmorillonite, it was found that the cations such as K, Na, Ca, Mg in the minerals all decreased to varying degrees, and the above cations also increased to the same degree in the pore solution of the soil. The exchange of cations may be directly related to the pH degree of the soil solution [14,72,73].
After a freezing and thawing test for soils with different pH levels, it is found that the mineral composition of primary minerals changes little, but the degree of siltylation is different (that is, the intensity of fragmentation). When pH = 5.5, the degree of fragmentation of quartz and feldspar is the largest, and the content of aphanite is the largest; When pH = 8.6, the degree of fragmentation is the smallest, and the content of cryptocrystalline textures is the smallest [67]. The essence of the cryogenic weathering process is the change of mineral particle size. During cryogenic weathering, the primary minerals in the soil are predominantly fragmented. Except for a part of cryptocrystalline, the main mineral composition changes little. The performance of clay minerals in the process of siltylation is slightly different. The single mineral soil fragments first and then aggregate, and the main mineral composition changes little and cryptocrystalline appears. Due to the complex composition of whole mineral soil, cation exchange of clay minerals will occur in the process of cryogenic weathering, but the composition change of its main minerals is not apparent.
From the above research on mineral composition, we can find that freezing and thawing has little effect on the mineral composition of soil, but the size of mineral particles has altered significantly in the process of freezing and thawing, and this size change corresponds to the phenomenon of particle siltylation. The mineral composition also determines the geochemical composition, and the insignificance of the mineral-chemical composition in the process of cryogenic silt-fication increases the difficulty of evaluating the cause of cryogenic weathering.

5. Analysis and Discussion

In summary, cryogenic soil is a kind of soil that has a very slow development process, and has no conspicuous changes in mineral and geochemical composition characteristics. Therefore, it is problematic to use it as an information carrier for the dynamic evolution and development of the cryogenic environment. Due to the above reasons, there has not been a breakthrough in the scientific issue of determining whether the soil has undergone a cryogenic weathering (freeze-thaw) process (existence of the cryogenic weathering process). It also increases the difficulty of determining the depositional environment and evolution history of Cryogenic soil. This scientific problem has always been a bottleneck in the development of related disciplines.
It was found by studying the degree of silt-fication of different grades of soils under freeze-thaw action. The essence of the silt-fication process of Cryogenic soils is a physical process in which mineral particles undergo fragmentation and aggregation and are enriched toward the pulverized grain size. The mineralogy of the soil particles is a decisive factor that determines the size (granularity) of the soil particles and the geochemical composition. The size (granularity) and geochemical composition of the soil particles primarily indicate the mineral information of the soil particles. Due to the different degrees of cryogenic weathering of minerals in soil, the enrichment degree of different kinds of minerals in the silt fraction is also different.
From the above analysis, in order to deepen the understanding of cryogenic soils weathering process, researchers should take cryogenic silt-fication as the research background and select soil samples with a low degree of silt-fication of cryogenic soils profile in permafrost areas as the research object. In addition, scholars should try to experimentally analyze the change pattern of mineral-geochemical distribution of soils during cryogenic silt-fication and elucidate the coupling process and mechanism of physical redistribution of particle size, minerals and geochemical components. And compared with the natural soil with a higher degree of silt in the surface layer, to further understand the characteristics of the pedogenic processes of cryogenic soil. On this basis, combined with the research methods of sedimentary geomorphology, we are trying to define the existence of the cryogenic weathering (freeze-thaw) process, establish a standard for determining the cause of cryogenic weathering, and trying to interpret the significance of cryogenic soils deposition environment.

6. Conclusions

Through the analysis of cryogenic soil from three aspects of particle size composition, surface morphology and mineral composition, it is found that:
The correlation coefficient of particle size composition before and after freeze-thaw is used to determine the cause of cryogenic weathering. Due to the singleness of judgment conditions, the result is not entirely convincing.
It is difficult to prove the microscopic morphology of the cause of cryogenic weathering from a single mineral of quartz. Therefore, it is necessary to start with more types of primary minerals, and analyze the differences in the particle shape and microscopic surface morphology of different types of primary minerals during the cryogenic weathering process. And on this basis, the typical mineral morphology of the cause of cryogenic weathering is comprehensively judged.
The freeze-thaw has little effect on the mineral composition of the soil, but has a greater impact on the size of mineral particles, and this size change corresponds to the phenomenon of particles silt-fication. The mineral composition also controls the geochemical composition, and the insignificance of the mineral-chemical composition in the process of cryogenic silt-fication increases the difficulty of judging the cause of cryogenic weathering.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, Z.Z. and J.Z.; methodology, Z.Z. and A.M.; software, X.L.; validation, Z.Z. and S.Z.; formal analysis, Z.Z., J.Z. and S.Z.; investigation, Z.Z., A.M. and X.L.; resources, Z.Z. and A.M.; data curation, X.L.; writing—original draft preparation, J.Z.; writing—review and editing, Z.Z., J.Z., A.M., S.Z. and X.L.; visualization, Z.Z. and S.Z.; supervision, Z.Z.; project administration, Z.Z. and A.M.; funding acquisition, Z.Z. and A.M. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

This research work was jointly supported by Heilongjiang Transportation Investment Group Co., Ltd. (JT-100000-ZC-FW-2021-0129), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (41771078, 42011530083, 42011530087), and Russian Foundation for Basic Research: RFBR-NSFC project (20-55-53006).

Data Availability Statement

Not applicable.

Acknowledgments

This paper is very grateful to Zhang Ze and Andrey Melnikov for their guidance. The authors are very appreciative of their efforts. Special thanks are also given to the two unidentified reviewers who have spent their precious time and efforts to in improving the quality of this paper.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Figure 1. Schematic illustration of the fragmentation process of soil mineral particles.
Figure 1. Schematic illustration of the fragmentation process of soil mineral particles.
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Figure 2. Electron microscope images of the fragmentation of two specimens. (Reprinted from Ref. [37]).
Figure 2. Electron microscope images of the fragmentation of two specimens. (Reprinted from Ref. [37]).
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Figure 3. PFC calculation result of soil particle contact stress.
Figure 3. PFC calculation result of soil particle contact stress.
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Figure 4. Schematic illustration of the aggregation of soil mineral particles.
Figure 4. Schematic illustration of the aggregation of soil mineral particles.
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Figure 5. Electron microscope image of the aggregation of two specimens. (Reprinted from Ref. [37]).
Figure 5. Electron microscope image of the aggregation of two specimens. (Reprinted from Ref. [37]).
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Figure 6. Surface water pattern of mineral particles (Adapted from [43]).
Figure 6. Surface water pattern of mineral particles (Adapted from [43]).
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Figure 7. Changes in the distribution of mineralogical parameters with grain size under cryogenic conditions. (A). Qualitative scheme: 1. Distribution of basic mineral components of sedimentary rocks. 2. Distribution of basic mineral components under cryogenic conditions. (B). Quantitative scheme, illustrating changes in the relative weight content of heavy minerals for a sample of given size. 1. Initial rock with distribution of heavy fraction yield. 2. Distribution of heavy mineral fraction under cryogenic conditions. (Adapted from [46]).
Figure 7. Changes in the distribution of mineralogical parameters with grain size under cryogenic conditions. (A). Qualitative scheme: 1. Distribution of basic mineral components of sedimentary rocks. 2. Distribution of basic mineral components under cryogenic conditions. (B). Quantitative scheme, illustrating changes in the relative weight content of heavy minerals for a sample of given size. 1. Initial rock with distribution of heavy fraction yield. 2. Distribution of heavy mineral fraction under cryogenic conditions. (Adapted from [46]).
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Zhang, Z.; Zhai, J.; Melnikov, A.; Zhang, S.; Li, X. Cryogenic Soil—Product of Mineral Weathering Processes. Minerals 2022, 12, 805. https://doi.org/10.3390/min12070805

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Zhang Z, Zhai J, Melnikov A, Zhang S, Li X. Cryogenic Soil—Product of Mineral Weathering Processes. Minerals. 2022; 12(7):805. https://doi.org/10.3390/min12070805

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Zhang, Ze, Jinbang Zhai, Andrey Melnikov, Shengrong Zhang, and Xianglong Li. 2022. "Cryogenic Soil—Product of Mineral Weathering Processes" Minerals 12, no. 7: 805. https://doi.org/10.3390/min12070805

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