Advective heat transport in frozen rock clefts : conceptual model, laboratory experiments and numerical simulation

Special issue : In honour of Professor Charles harris

Auteur(s) et Affiliation(s)



Description :
Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations based on the model indicate that latent heat release due to initial ice aggradation can rapidly warm cold bedrock and precondition it for later thermal erosion of cleft ice by advected sensible heat. The timing and duration of water percolation both affect the ice-level change if initial aggradation and subsequent erosion are of the same order of magnitude. The surplus advected heat is absorbed by cleft ice loss and runoff from the cleft so that this energy is not directly detectable in ground temperature records. The results suggest that thawing-related rockfall is possible even in cold permafrost if meltwater production and flow characteristics change significantly. Advective warming could rapidly affect failure planes beneath large rock masses and failure events could therefore differ greatly from common magnitude reaction-time relations.


Type de document :
Article de monographie

Source :
Permafrost and periglacial processes, issn : 1045-6740, 2011, vol. 22, n°. 4, p. 378-389, nombre de pages : 12, Références bibliographiques : 24 ref.

Date :
2011

Editeur :
Pays édition : Royaume-Uni, Chichester, Wiley