Soils of continental Antarctica are forming in one of the most severe terrestrial environments. Continously low temperatures and the scarcity of water in the liquid state result in the development of desert-type soils. In an earlier experiment to determine the degree to which radioactive NaCl36 would migrate from a shallow point source in permafrost, movement was observed. To confirm this results, a similar experiment involving Na22Cl has been conducted. Significantly less movement of the Na22 ion was observed. Ionic movement in the unfrozen interfacial films at mineral surfaces in frozen ground is held to be important in chemical weathering in Antarctic and other desert soils.
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Ugolini et al. (1973) studied this question.