Arctic soil patterns analogous to fluid instabilities
Slow-moving arctic soils commonly organize into striking large-scale spatial patterns called solifluction terraces and lobes. Although these features impact hillslope stability, carbon storage and release, and landscape response to climate change, no mechanistic explanation exists for their formatio...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:8166060 2023-05-15T14:49:35+02:00 Arctic soil patterns analogous to fluid instabilities Glade, Rachel C. Fratkin, Michael M. Pouragha, Mehdi Seiphoori, Ali Rowland, Joel C. 2021-05-25 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8166060/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34021079 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101255118 en eng National Academy of Sciences http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8166060/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34021079 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101255118 Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) . CC-BY-NC-ND Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Physical Sciences Text 2021 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101255118 2021-06-13T00:28:14Z Slow-moving arctic soils commonly organize into striking large-scale spatial patterns called solifluction terraces and lobes. Although these features impact hillslope stability, carbon storage and release, and landscape response to climate change, no mechanistic explanation exists for their formation. Everyday fluids—such as paint dripping down walls—produce markedly similar fingering patterns resulting from competition between viscous and cohesive forces. Here we use a scaling analysis to show that soil cohesion and hydrostatic effects can lead to similar large-scale patterns in arctic soils. A large dataset of high-resolution solifluction lobe spacing and morphology across Norway supports theoretical predictions and indicates a newly observed climatic control on solifluction dynamics and patterns. Our findings provide a quantitative explanation of a common pattern on Earth and other planets, illuminating the importance of cohesive forces in landscape dynamics. These patterns operate at length and time scales previously unrecognized, with implications toward understanding fluid–solid dynamics in particulate systems with complex rheology. Text Arctic Climate change PubMed Central (PMC) Arctic Norway Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118 21 e2101255118 |
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Physical Sciences Glade, Rachel C. Fratkin, Michael M. Pouragha, Mehdi Seiphoori, Ali Rowland, Joel C. Arctic soil patterns analogous to fluid instabilities |
topic_facet |
Physical Sciences |
description |
Slow-moving arctic soils commonly organize into striking large-scale spatial patterns called solifluction terraces and lobes. Although these features impact hillslope stability, carbon storage and release, and landscape response to climate change, no mechanistic explanation exists for their formation. Everyday fluids—such as paint dripping down walls—produce markedly similar fingering patterns resulting from competition between viscous and cohesive forces. Here we use a scaling analysis to show that soil cohesion and hydrostatic effects can lead to similar large-scale patterns in arctic soils. A large dataset of high-resolution solifluction lobe spacing and morphology across Norway supports theoretical predictions and indicates a newly observed climatic control on solifluction dynamics and patterns. Our findings provide a quantitative explanation of a common pattern on Earth and other planets, illuminating the importance of cohesive forces in landscape dynamics. These patterns operate at length and time scales previously unrecognized, with implications toward understanding fluid–solid dynamics in particulate systems with complex rheology. |
format |
Text |
author |
Glade, Rachel C. Fratkin, Michael M. Pouragha, Mehdi Seiphoori, Ali Rowland, Joel C. |
author_facet |
Glade, Rachel C. Fratkin, Michael M. Pouragha, Mehdi Seiphoori, Ali Rowland, Joel C. |
author_sort |
Glade, Rachel C. |
title |
Arctic soil patterns analogous to fluid instabilities |
title_short |
Arctic soil patterns analogous to fluid instabilities |
title_full |
Arctic soil patterns analogous to fluid instabilities |
title_fullStr |
Arctic soil patterns analogous to fluid instabilities |
title_full_unstemmed |
Arctic soil patterns analogous to fluid instabilities |
title_sort |
arctic soil patterns analogous to fluid instabilities |
publisher |
National Academy of Sciences |
publishDate |
2021 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8166060/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34021079 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101255118 |
geographic |
Arctic Norway |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Norway |
genre |
Arctic Climate change |
genre_facet |
Arctic Climate change |
op_source |
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8166060/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34021079 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101255118 |
op_rights |
Copyright © 2021 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) . |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY-NC-ND |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2101255118 |
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Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
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118 |
container_issue |
21 |
container_start_page |
e2101255118 |
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1766320669105061888 |