Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment.
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 stu...
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ftcdlib:oai:escholarship.org/ark:/13030/qt9rc2q9g9 2023-05-15T15:07:50+02:00 Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment. Wagner, Anna M Lindsey, Nathaniel J Dou, Shan Gelvin, Arthur Saari, Stephanie Williams, Christopher Ekblaw, Ian Ulrich, Craig Borglin, Sharon Morales, Alejandro Ajo-Franklin, Jonathan 10908 2018-07-19 application/pdf https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9rc2q9g9 unknown eScholarship, University of California qt9rc2q9g9 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9rc2q9g9 public Scientific reports, vol 8, iss 1 Biochemistry and Cell Biology Other Physical Sciences article 2018 ftcdlib 2020-03-06T23:54:57Z 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 significant. Our experiment provides the first large field calibration dataset for multiphysics thaw models. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Climate change Ice permafrost University of California: eScholarship Arctic Fairbanks |
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Open Polar |
collection |
University of California: eScholarship |
op_collection_id |
ftcdlib |
language |
unknown |
topic |
Biochemistry and Cell Biology Other Physical Sciences |
spellingShingle |
Biochemistry and Cell Biology Other Physical Sciences Wagner, Anna M Lindsey, Nathaniel J Dou, Shan Gelvin, Arthur Saari, Stephanie Williams, Christopher Ekblaw, Ian Ulrich, Craig Borglin, Sharon Morales, Alejandro Ajo-Franklin, Jonathan Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment. |
topic_facet |
Biochemistry and Cell Biology Other Physical Sciences |
description |
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 significant. Our experiment provides the first large field calibration dataset for multiphysics thaw models. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Wagner, Anna M Lindsey, Nathaniel J Dou, Shan Gelvin, Arthur Saari, Stephanie Williams, Christopher Ekblaw, Ian Ulrich, Craig Borglin, Sharon Morales, Alejandro Ajo-Franklin, Jonathan |
author_facet |
Wagner, Anna M Lindsey, Nathaniel J Dou, Shan Gelvin, Arthur Saari, Stephanie Williams, Christopher Ekblaw, Ian Ulrich, Craig Borglin, Sharon Morales, Alejandro Ajo-Franklin, Jonathan |
author_sort |
Wagner, Anna M |
title |
Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment. |
title_short |
Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment. |
title_full |
Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment. |
title_fullStr |
Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment. |
title_sort |
permafrost degradation and subsidence observations during a controlled warming experiment. |
publisher |
eScholarship, University of California |
publishDate |
2018 |
url |
https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9rc2q9g9 |
op_coverage |
10908 |
geographic |
Arctic Fairbanks |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Fairbanks |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Ice permafrost |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Ice permafrost |
op_source |
Scientific reports, vol 8, iss 1 |
op_relation |
qt9rc2q9g9 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9rc2q9g9 |
op_rights |
public |
_version_ |
1766339255862296576 |