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Questions tagged [permafrost]

Questions related to permafrost, either to a process implying the frozen ground, the permafrost dynamics or when localized in a permafrost zone/region (as in periglacial). It is a subset of the [glaciology] tag and often complements it, when the focus is on the frozen ground instead of glacier ice, ice-caps or sea-ice.

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Why is thermal coupling between atmosphere and ground a non conductive?

While reading about permafrost (Haeberli, Wilfried, et al. "Permafrost creep and rock glacier dynamics." Permafrost and periglacial processes 17.3 (2006): 189-214), I have come across the ...
kc_nul's user avatar
  • 551
2 votes
3 answers
139 views

The origin of permafrost

Old permafrost is loaded with frozen vegetation. As it now melts, it is rotting and releasing methane. Doesn't that mean that it froze quickly, centuries ago, and stayed frozen until now? What ...
user17842's user avatar
7 votes
1 answer
132 views

Is it feasible to 'harvest' the clathrates from the permafrost before they evaporate?

We can see that there are large buildups of methane clathrates in permafrost regions. Climate scientist James Hansen has predicted that the release of the permafrost methane clathrates could cause ...
hawkeye's user avatar
  • 925
2 votes
0 answers
36 views

less albedo feedback under high (BAU) emissions?

i've recently read Climate policy implications of nonlinear decline of Arctic land permafrost and other cryosphere elements https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-09863-x the study estimates the ...
j t's user avatar
  • 21
6 votes
2 answers
184 views

How deep does the frost have to go before it becomes permafrost?

Supposing you had an unusually cold winter and a region that does not normally have permafrost. How deep would the frost have to go before it was too deep for it to thaw fully over summer?
ShemSeger's user avatar
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6 votes
2 answers
378 views

What is the relevance of Arctic coastal erosion to the Earth's climate?

Due to global warming and Arctic amplification, Northern Hemispheric permafrost is thawing and becoming a source of carbon and many greenhouse gases, which then positively feedback to global warming ...
ouranos's user avatar
  • 652
6 votes
2 answers
251 views

Actual thickness of permafrost vs theoretical maximum possibly permafrost thickness

I came across a question in my notes about why the actual thickness of permafrost is much less than the theoretical maximum possible permafrost thickness value. The actual permafrost measure on sites ...
user6825's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
202 views

Permafrost thickness

Studying for a midterm and I came across the following question. Is aspect more or less important than material type in determining permafrost thickness? In physical geology, aspect is the compass ...
permafrost's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
77 views

What's a frost-gley?

I've noticed this term in a book about Pleistocene East Europe. It's apparently a soil which was formed during the interstadials, but that's all my book says, and I can't find much more on the ...
Qwedfsf's user avatar
  • 177
12 votes
2 answers
2k views

How deep is the permafrost in the Antarctic?

I tried in vain to find the answer to this question on the web, but all it would tell me was, "it is very deep", and "it is known as a thaw line rather than a frost line in the arctic and antarctic". ...
Addison Richert's user avatar
8 votes
1 answer
153 views

What amount of permafrost carbon release could be expected with the IPCC worse-prediction of a 4.8C temperature rise?

As answered in my earlier question How much methane clathrates are buried in continental deposits?, there is alot of methane trapped in the form of clathrates in continental deposits. Additionally, ...
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38 votes
4 answers
1k views

Why do the Siberian methane craters have smooth vertical walls?

I expect most of you have heard of this by now. All the news is about whether or not they were formed by the release of methane, but it is also mysterious to me why this crater has jagged edges but ...
spraff's user avatar
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