Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment
© 2018, The Author(s). 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 co...
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ftcdlib:qt9rc2q9g9 2023-05-15T15:06:11+02:00 Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment Wagner, AM Lindsey, NJ Dou, S Gelvin, A Saari, S Williams, C Ekblaw, I Ulrich, C Borglin, S Morales, A Ajo-Franklin, J 2018-12-01 application/pdf http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/9rc2q9g9 english eng eScholarship, University of California qt9rc2q9g9 http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/9rc2q9g9 public Wagner, AM; Lindsey, NJ; Dou, S; Gelvin, A; Saari, S; Williams, C; et al.(2018). Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment. Scientific Reports, 8(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-018-29292-y. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/9rc2q9g9 article 2018 ftcdlib https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29292-y 2018-09-28T22:53:12Z © 2018, The Author(s). 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 Scientific Reports 8 1 |
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University of California: eScholarship |
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English |
description |
© 2018, The Author(s). 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, AM Lindsey, NJ Dou, S Gelvin, A Saari, S Williams, C Ekblaw, I Ulrich, C Borglin, S Morales, A Ajo-Franklin, J |
spellingShingle |
Wagner, AM Lindsey, NJ Dou, S Gelvin, A Saari, S Williams, C Ekblaw, I Ulrich, C Borglin, S Morales, A Ajo-Franklin, J Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment |
author_facet |
Wagner, AM Lindsey, NJ Dou, S Gelvin, A Saari, S Williams, C Ekblaw, I Ulrich, C Borglin, S Morales, A Ajo-Franklin, J |
author_sort |
Wagner, AM |
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 |
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/9rc2q9g9 |
geographic |
Arctic Fairbanks |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Fairbanks |
genre |
Arctic Climate change Ice permafrost |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change Ice permafrost |
op_source |
Wagner, AM; Lindsey, NJ; Dou, S; Gelvin, A; Saari, S; Williams, C; et al.(2018). Permafrost Degradation and Subsidence Observations during a Controlled Warming Experiment. Scientific Reports, 8(1). doi:10.1038/s41598-018-29292-y. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/9rc2q9g9 |
op_relation |
qt9rc2q9g9 http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/9rc2q9g9 |
op_rights |
public |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-29292-y |
container_title |
Scientific Reports |
container_volume |
8 |
container_issue |
1 |
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1766337842189959168 |