Significance and technological capacities of natural study of the ground pore pressure dynamics under the freezing and thawing conditions

Actual geotechnical monitoring systems and models of geocryological processes are aimed at assessing and preventing hazardous dynamic impacts on infrastructure facilities in the Arctic and Subarctic of Russia. The level of methodological support and hardware development of these systems are insufficient in Russia in the context of a changing climate, growing environmental impact and decreasing quality of geological survey and design. Pore pressure is successfully studied at the sample level in the laboratory and in the field by using the static sensing method, however, the dynamics of pore pressure and the physical patterns of this dynamics in soil massifs remain studied inadequately. For theoretical reasons, pore pressure should change under the influence of processes associated with freezing and thawing, and, consequently, it should affect the intensity of gas hydrate dissociation as well as the mechanical properties of soils. The modern technological base provides new opportunities for the study of the pore pressure dynamics in the soil mass. This opens prospects for improving geotechnical monitoring systems for the protection of infrastructure facilities from adverse natural and man-made impacts.