Self-Organization of Sorted Patterned Ground
M. A. Kessler,*
B. T. Werner
Striking circular, labyrinthine, polygonal, and striped patterns of
stones and soil self-organize in many polar and high alpine environments. These forms emerge because freeze-thaw cycles drive an
interplay between two feedback mechanisms. First, formation of ice
lenses in freezing soil sorts stones and soil by displacing soil toward
soil-rich domains and stones toward stone-rich domains. Second, stones
are transported along the axis of elongate stone domains, which are
squeezed and confined as freezing soil domains expand. In a numerical
model implementing these feedbacks, circles, labyrinths, and islands
form when sorting dominates; polygonal networks form when stone domain
squeezing and confinement dominate; and stripes form as hillslope
gradient is increased.
Complex Systems Laboratory, Cecil and Ida Green Institute of
Geophysics and Planetary Physics, University of California, San Diego,
La Jolla, CA 92093, USA.
*
Present address: Earth Sciences Department, University of
California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail:
mkessler{at}es.ucsc.edu
