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Could you outline the order of polygon formation and evaluation evolution?




Yes, I could.

Polygons (a sort of patterned ground) can form either in permafrost areas or in areas that are affected by seasonal frost.

 

Polygon formation:

A cut-away view of the tundra in summer. The active layer is thawed.

 

 

Winter temperatures cause soil to contract, forming cracks

 

The seasons turn to spring, when snow melt, water infiltrates the cracks and influenced by the temperature of underground permafrost freezes to form ice wedges. Water, unlike most compounds (i.e. soil and organic matter in the tundra) which contract when they freeze, actually expands when it freezes and forms ice.

 

In summer, the active layer and the tops of the ice wedges melt.

 

In winter cracks form again, usually in the same place, even forming a fissure in the existing ice wedge.

 

 

Then in spring more water gets into the cracks, enlarging the ice wedges.

 

 

This cycle of crack, melt, and freeze continues to enlarge the wedges year by year..

 

 

until the soil above the wedges is pushed up, forming ridges. If you look down from above, these ridges create a blocky pattern on the ground, called polygons.

 

 

Cable: This crack again fills with water and freezes. And so over hundreds, thousands of years this crack get bigger and bigger and fills with more and more ice and this creates an ice wedge. Thats what creates this polygonal landscape.

The landscape is like a jigsaw puzzle, every piece in place. The cracks at the edges of the puzzle pieces are where water has entered and created ice wedges. Ice wedges meet up with their fellow ice wedges where the cracks join. Meanwhile, the center of the puzzle pieces are ruled by soil and organic matter.

 

Polygon evolution:

If the ice is exposed, a wedge may begin to melt.

As more ice is exposed, the ice wedge and the active layer melt lower...

 

 

until a pond begins to form.

 

 

The pond water holds heat from the summer sun, so the active layer melts deeper beneath the water.

 

Seen from above, these lakes (called thermokarst lakes) can become longer in one direction when prevailing winds blow waves against the down-wind shore

The lake side may break down, causing the lake to drain.

 

 

Without its insulating cover of water, the active layer begins to refreeze.

 

 

 

In winter, the surface freezes over a thawed remnant of the active layer.

 

The very wet soil continues to freeze within the permafrost layer, even in summer.

 

 

As the unfrozen area continues to contract, the unfrozen water is squeezed under great pressure.

 

 

Eventually, the water is under such pressure that it pushes upward (the direction of least resistance)...

 

 

until the unfrozen water collects under the root mat (in Russian: ), and freezes, creating a pingo.

 

 

If the root mat cracks open enough to expose the ice, the pingo top begins to melt.

 

As the ice core continues to melt, the pingo collapses further.

 

Continued melting over many years removes most traces of the pingo.

 

If conditions are right, the cycle will begin again.





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