Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment

Scientific Reports
Anna M WagnerJonathan Ajo-Franklin

Abstract

Global climate change has resulted in a warmer Arctic, with projections indicating accelerated modifications to permafrost in the near future. The thermal, hydrological, and mechanical physics of permafrost thaw have been hypothesized to couple in a complex fashion but data collection efforts to study these feedbacks in the field have been limited. As a result, laboratory and numerical models have largely outpaced field calibration datasets. We present the design, execution, and initial results from the first decameter-scale controlled thawing experiment, targeting coupled thermal/mechanical response, particularly the temporal sequence of surface subsidence relative to permafrost degradation at depth. The warming test was conducted in Fairbanks, AK, and utilized an array of in-ground heaters to induce thaw of a ~11 × 13 × 1.5 m soil volume over 63 days. The 4-D temperature evolution demonstrated that the depth to permafrost lowered 1 m during the experiment. The resulting thaw-induced surface deformation was ~10 cm as observed using a combination of measurement techniques. Surface deformation occurred over a smaller spatial domain than the full thawed volume, suggesting that gradients in cryotexture and ice content were signifi...Continue Reading

References

Apr 20, 2001·Nature·F E NelsonN I Shiklomanov
May 9, 2014·Ecology·Susan M NataliKathryn G Crummer
Apr 10, 2015·Nature·E A G SchuurJ E Vonk
Dec 29, 2016·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·April M MelvinSergey S Marchenko

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