Chris Moeckel

1 month ago | science.org | Kieren Harkins |Shilin Xu |Chris Moeckel |Yumin Wang

AbstractThawing of permafrost substantially affects the local environment and global energy balance. When salt water overlays permafrost, Rayleigh-Darcy (R-D) instability emerges because of the density mismatch and regulates melting (thawing) dynamics. Contrary to expectations that a higher Rayleigh number (R) would amplify instability, our experiments revealed fingering and stable melting fronts at low and high R, respectively.