Brief communication: Mimicking periglacial landforms and processes in an ice-rich layered permafrost system with polydisperse melamine materials – a new concept

Abstract

This paper presents the results of testing polydisperse melamine material versus sand for a laboratory-based ice-rich layered soil system under thawing conditions. We demonstrate the potential of using polydisperse melamine particles for the aim of experimentally mimicking the permafrost geomorphological degradations and landslides found in periglacial field environments. We stress that these types of particles, designed for flow and sedimentary processes in rivers due to their light particle density and the granulometric sizes they span, are adequate for modeling more realistic geomorphological thawing features as observed in cryosphere environments such as slump blocks.