Origin of a salt-water lens in permafrost at Kotzebue, Alaska

Frozen sediments were found to a depth of 238 feet in the drilling of a 325-foot well at Kotzebue, Alaska. Between 79 and 86 feet, however, highly saline water was found in a gravel lens. The writer suggests that the salt water originated by fractionation by freezing. Analyses of this water and of slightly saline water from below the permafrost are given.