Self-Organization of Sorted Patterned Ground
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R EPORTS soil down and toward soil-rich regions and pushes stones up and toward stone-rich regions, Self-Organization of Sorted eventually giving rise to distinct stone and soil domains (11, 22). Patterned Ground The second feedback, between stone do- main morphology and stone transport, stabilizes M. A. Kessler*† and B. T. Werner and promotes elongation of linear stone do- mains by transporting stones along their axes. Striking circular, labyrinthine, polygonal, and striped patterns of stones and soil Laterally directed frost heave near the stone-soil self-organize in many polar and high alpine environments. These forms emerge interface squeezes the stone domain (23), there- because freeze-thaw cycles drive an interplay between two feedback mecha- by elevating its surface by an amount propor- nisms. First, formation of ice lenses in freezing soil sorts stones and soil by tional to lateral frost heave. Resulting along- displacing soil toward soil-rich domains and stones toward stone-rich domains. axis gradients in uplift drive stone transport Second, stones are transported along the axis of elongate stone domains, which along the stone domain if stones are laterally are squeezed and confined as freezing soil domains expand. In a numerical model confined within stone domains. Such confine- implementing these feedbacks, circles, labyrinths, and islands form when sort- ment is promoted by low surface relief across ing dominates; polygonal networks form when stone domain squeezing and stone domains, which results when rapid freez- confinement dominate; and stripes form as hillslope gradient is increased. ing of stone domains causes uniform lateral frost heave with depth in surrounding soils Patterns delineated by distinct stone and soil The first feedback (Fig. 2), between stone- (24). Squeezing and confinement stabilize the (fine-grained) domains visible at the ground soil interface morphology and transport of vertical thickness of stone domains, because surface are formed by cyclic freezing and thaw- stones and soil by frost heave, acts to laterally uplift increases with thickness, causing stones ing of decimeter- to meter-thick soil layers in sort the active layer by moving stones toward to avalanche from regions of high to low thick- polar and high alpine environments. The ob- areas of high stone concentration and soil to- ness. Similarly, squeezing and confinement sta- served range of sorted patterned ground in- ward areas of high soil concentration. Given a bilize the width of stone domains because wider cludes sorted circles, labyrinthine stone and soil layer of stones overlying fine-grained soil sections, which are deeper and more easily networks, stone islands, sorted polygons, and (formed by deposition or vertical sorting), a deformed (25), experience greater uplift than do sorted stripes on hillslopes (Fig. 1). These laterally uniform stone-soil interface is unstable narrower sections. Squeezing and confinement quintessential forms constitute one of the most to perturbations because of frost heave near the also elongate stone domains because uplift pro- striking suites of geomorphic patterns. The di- interface. A freezing front (0° isotherm) de- motes avalanching of stones toward and off versity of sorted patterned ground has been scending from the ground surface mimics the narrow and shallow ends. attributed to a multiplicity of formation mech- morphology of the stone-soil interface because In a numerical model implementing these anisms (1). The underlying processes include it descends faster in overlying stone regions feedbacks (26), stones move in two dimensions particle sorting (2, 3), freezing and thawing (2, (which are dry) than in fine-grained soils representing an active layer in plan view (27). 4, 5), deformation of frozen soil (6), and soil [which retain substantial water and must freeze The effects of soil domains on stones are cal- creep (7), but the range of forms has not been as well as be cooled (19–21)]. Consequently, culated from the current configuration of captured in a single model (8–11). where the interface is inclined, frost heave stones. Beginning with a random configuration, Patterns in a broad range of environments (which acts normal to the freezing front) pushes the two feedback mechanisms drive incremen- have been hypothesized to form by self-organi- zation [e.g., (12–17)], whereby nonlinear, dissi- pative interactions among the small- and fast- scale constituents of a system give rise to order at larger spatial and longer temporal scales (18). Because transport in the active layer (the soil layer experiencing annual or diurnal freezing and thawing) is highly nonlinear and dissipative, self-organization is a candidate for the general mechanism underlying sorted patterned ground (10–12). In this case, a smooth change in con- trolling parameters might lead to an abrupt shift in the type of sorted patterned ground without a change in processes causing the pattern. We have developed a numerical model within which sorted patterned ground self-organizes, with transitions between patterns controlled by the relative magnitude of two feedback mechanisms plus hillslope gradient. Complex Systems Laboratory, Cecil and Ida Green Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Univer- sity of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92093, USA. *Present address: Earth Sciences Department, Univer- Fig. 1. Forms of sorted patterned ground (scale bars apply to foreground): (A) sorted circles (full sity of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA. scale bar ϳ2 m) and (B) sorted labyrinths (full scale bar ϳ1 m), Kvadehuksletta, Spitsbergen; (C) †To whom correspondence should be addressed. E- sorted stripes (full scale bar ϳ1 m), Tangle Lakes region, Alaska; and (D) sorted polygons (full scale mail: [email protected] bar ϳ1.0 m), Denali Highway, Alaska. 380 17 JANUARY 2003 VOL 299 SCIENCE www.sciencemag.org R EPORTS tal stone displacements over repeated iterations, ing the rate of stone motion]. Far from a stone stone domain (26) and Ksq is a diffusion con- each of which represents a freeze-thaw cycle. domain, these displacements represent transport stant (29) determining the rate of downslope Additionally, during each iteration, surface by surface creep; close to a stone domain, they stone transport. The direction of transport, uˆ,is stones are displaced downslope a distance pro- represent the combined effects of surface creep the average of a unit vector pointing along the portional to the hillslope gradient. and sorting caused by frost heave at freezing axis of the stone domain (determined over a Lateral sorting is abstracted by first calcu- fronts inclined to the stone-soil interface. This distance Dsq and weighted by a constant factor lating a surface, H, that decreases with local abstraction simulates the positive feedback of Csq) and a randomly oriented unit vector stone concentration [averaged over a radius Dls lateral sorting because areas of high stone con- (weighted by the factor 1 – Csq). The length (28) and weighted by inverse distance], which centration generate dips in the surface that at- scale Dsq corresponds to the distance over which represents a smoothed version of the stone-soil tract more stones. the direction of lateral frost heave varies, as and air-soil interfaces. Then stones are moved a Within stone domains, motion by lateral controlled by heat conduction and the thickness ␦ distance xls downslope (toward regions of squeezing and confinement is abstracted as dif- of the frozen layer (30). The nondimensional high stone concentration) proportional to the fusion of stones biased parallel to the axis of the weighting Csq (ranging from 0 to 1) encapsu- Խ ١ ϭԽ ␦ ١ ϭ ␦ local gradient of this surface [ xls Kls H, stone domain: xsq Ksq U uˆ, where U is the lates the degree of confinement of stones to the where Kls is a diffusion constant (29) determin- surface uplift owing to lateral squeezing of the stone domain; increasing Csq increases the along-axis component of stone diffusion and Fig. 2. Feedback mechanisms for decreases the radially symmetric component. sorted patterned ground: lateral Increasing Ksq represents increasing lateral sorting (A and B) and lateral squeezing and uplift, which increases the along- squeezing and confinement (A, C, axis and radially symmetric components of and D). (A) Frost heave expands stone diffusion. Changing the along-axis com- soil perpendicular to the freezing ponent of stone diffusion independent of the front (cross section). Horizontal lines indicate zone of lateral frost radially symmetric component can be accom- heave near the stone-soil inter- plished if Ksq and Csq are varied simultaneously, face; vertical lines indicate zone of keeping Ksq(1 – Csq) constant. vertical frost heave near the As the mean concentration of stones, the ground surface. (B) Surface stones hillslope gradient, and the degree of lateral con- creep toward stone domains, sub- finement were varied in our model, sorted cir- surface soil is driven toward the interior of the soil domain, and cles, labyrinths, islands, stripes, and polygons stones are pushed toward stone emerged (Fig. 3). Without lateral confinement ϭ domains by frost heave near the (Csq 0) and as stone concentration was de- stone-soil interface (cross section) creased, sorted circles transitioned to labyrinths (11). (C) Stones avalanche away at ϳ1000 stones/m2 and then to stone islands at from regions where stone domains ϳ700 stones/m2 (Fig. 3A), because isolated are thicker, which experience greater uplift by lateral