Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 11 April 1986:
Vol. 232. no. 4747, pp. 216 - 220
DOI: 10.1126/science.232.4747.216
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Geometrical Aspects of Sorted Patterned Ground in Recurrently Frozen Soil

KEVIN J. GLEASON 1, WILLIAM B. KRANTZ 1, NELSON CAINE 2, JOHN H. GEORGE 3, and ROBERT D. GUNN 4

1 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309.
2 Department of Geography and Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309.
3 Department of Mathematics, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071.
4 Department of Chemical Engineering, University of Wyoming, Laramie, WY 82071.

A model for sorted patterned ground shows that some types arise from density-driven Rayleigh free convection that occurs during thawing of water-saturated recurrently frozen soils. The regularly spaced convection cells result in an uneven melting of the underlying ice front. Frost action causes stones to be upthrusted and to form in a pattern on the ground surface that mirrors the corrugation in the underlying ice front. The implications of the water circulation direction in the cells on the sorting process are considered.

Submitted on July 30, 1985
Accepted on January 6, 1986


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Thermally induced pulsatile motion of solids.
J. G.A Croll (2009)
Proc R Soc A 465, 791-807
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Self-Organization of Sorted Patterned Ground.
M. A. Kessler and B. T. Werner (2003)
Science 299, 380-383
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Issues in Canadian permafrost research.
C. R. Burn, C.R. Burn, and M.W. Smith (1993)
Progress in Physical Geography 17, 156-172
   Abstract »    PDF »


To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)