6
votes
Accepted
What's a frost-gley?
A frost-gley is a waterlogged permafrost soil. IOW, a gleysol that has undergone cryoturbation.
- 1,207
6
votes
Accepted
What is the relevance of Arctic coastal erosion to the Earth's climate?
If we consider only the climatic impacts of Arctic coastal erosion, there are still two sides of the question of how relevant is Arctic coastal erosion of permafrost.
The first side is how big is its ...
- 17.6k
6
votes
How deep does the frost have to go before it becomes permafrost?
Permafrost is permanently frozen ground. However, most definition qualify it as permafrost if it remains frozen for at least two years.
The speed at which a temperature change travels down the ground ...
- 17.6k
4
votes
The origin of permafrost
What caused a centuries long freeze, the beginning of the current ice age. Yes we are in an ice age, as long as greenland and antarctica have large ice sheets we are technically in an ice age) Which ...
- 6,803
3
votes
How deep does the frost have to go before it becomes permafrost?
There is actually a name for this phenomenon: "pereletok"
How deep would the frost have to go before it was too deep for it to thaw fully over summer?
This depends more on the thermal ...
- 428
1
vote
The origin of permafrost
Doesn't that mean that it froze quickly, centuries ago, and stayed frozen until now?
Not necessarily. In places where permafrost exists, the thickness of the 'active layer' (the layer above ...
- 428
1
vote
What is the relevance of Arctic coastal erosion to the Earth's climate?
SANDIA REPORT“The Arctic Coastal Erosion Problem”by Sandia National
Laboratories, SAND2016-9762, September,2016
"One-third of the coastline in the world is Arctic permafrost [Lantuit et al., 2012]. ...
- 19
1
vote
Actual thickness of permafrost vs theoretical maximum possibly permafrost thickness
I resolved the following based on your input:
$z = (T_s)(k/q)$ for the granite case,
where
$75 = (3)(k/0.04)$ where $k = 1$
so based on this site here, typical granite thermal conductivity is in ...
- 2,633
1
vote
Permafrost thickness
This is a non-exhaustive list of factors influencing the permafrost thickness :
latitude
altitude
aspect
material type
nature of the regional climate (dry, oceans, continental)
geologic history of ...
- 2,633
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