Cryosuction

'''Cryosuction''' is the concept of negative pressure in freezing liquids so that more liquid is sucked into the freezing zone. In soil, the transformation of liquid water to ice in the soil pores causes water to migrate through soil pores to the freezing zone through capillary action.<ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1017/S0032247400013231 | volume = 27 | issue = 163 | page = 370 | last = Williams | first = P.J. |author2=M.W. Smith | title = The Frozen Earth: Fundamentals of Geocryology | journal = Polar Record | year = 1991 | doi-access = free }}</ref> <ref>{{Cite journal | doi = 10.1016/S0165-232X(96)00019-5

| title = Soil freezing -- the concept of soil water potential. State of the art

| journal = Cold Regions Science and Technology

| date = March 1997

| bibcode = 1997CRST...25..101H }}</ref>

==History of discovery== In 1930, Stephen Taber demonstrated that liquid water migrates towards the freeze line within soil. He showed that other liquids, such as benzene, which contracts when it freezes, also produce frost heave.<ref>{{Cite journal | last = Taber | first = Stephen | title = The mechanics of frost heaving | journal = Journal of Geology | volume = 38 | issue = 4 | pages = 303–317 | year = 1930 | url = https://apps.dtic.mil/sti/pdfs/ADA247424.pdf | doi = 10.1086/623720 | bibcode = 1930JG.....38..303T | s2cid = 129655820 | access-date = 2010-03-24 | archive-date = 2013-04-08 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130408133501/http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA247424 | url-status = live }}</ref>

Fine-grained soils such as clays and silts enable greater negative pressures than more coarse-grained soils due to the smaller pore size. In periglacial environments, this mechanism is highly significant and it is the predominant process in ice lens formation in permafrost areas.<ref>{{Cite journal

| doi = 10.1080/10298430412331317464

| issn = 1029-8436

| volume = 5

| issue = 4

| pages = 185–192

| last = Doré

| first = Guy

| title = Development and Validation of the Thaw-weakening Index

| journal = International Journal of Pavement Engineering

| year = 2004

|s2cid = 136685950}}</ref>

As of 2001, several models for ice-lens formation by cryosuction existed, among others the hydrodynamic model and the Premelting model, many of them based on the Clausius–Clapeyron relation with various assumptions, yielding cryosuction potentials of 11 to 12 atm per degree Celsius below zero depending on pore size.<ref>{{cite book

|last=Davis |first=Neil |title=Permafrost: A Guide to Frozen Ground in Transition |year=2001 |publisher=University of Alaska Press |isbn=978-1-889963-19-8|page=351 }}</ref>

In 2023, experiments from the ETH Zurich were published, in which the process could be observed between glass slides in a confocal microscope.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gerber |first=Dominic |last2=Wilen |first2=Lawrence A. |last3=Poydenot |first3=Florian |last4=Dufresne |first4=Eric R. |last5=Style |first5=Robert W. |date=2022-08-02 |title=Stress accumulation by confined ice in a temperature gradient |url=https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2200748119 |journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |volume=119 |issue=31 |article-number=e2200748119 |doi=10.1073/pnas.2200748119 |pmc=9351533 |pmid=35905317}}</ref> In single-crystal experiments the rate of ice growth was slow, but with polycrystalline ice there were many more channels to suck in water to grow ice.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gerber |first=Dominic |last2=Wilen |first2=Lawrence A. |last3=Dufresne |first3=Eric R. |last4=Style |first4=Robert W. |date=2023-11-16 |title=Polycrystallinity Enhances Stress Buildup around Ice |url=https://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.208201 |journal=Physical Review Letters |volume=131 |issue=20 |article-number=208201 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.131.208201|url-access=subscription }}</ref> How solutes in the water influence cryosuction is still unexplored.<ref>Katherine Wright [https://physics.aps.org/articles/v16/194 Liquid Veins Give Ice Its Road-Wrecking Power] November 16, 2023, Physics Magazine 16, 194</ref>

== See also == * Pore water pressure * Suction

== References == {{Reflist}}

==External links== *[https://nsidc.org/learn/cryosphere-glossary/c?name=cryosuction Cryosuction] Cryosphere glossary, National Snow and Ice Data Center, Canada, accessed 22 November 2023

Category:Geography of the Arctic Category:Geomorphology Category:Hydrology