Alternations of runoff and solifluction in periglacial environments: Canadian examples and experiments

Abstract

Article in French.

ORIGINAL TITLE: Alternances du ruissellement et de la solifluction dans les millieux périglaciaires: exemples Canadiens et experimentations

Field observations and laboratory experiments help us understand the sequence of runoff and solifluction processes during meltwater and the development of certain types of structural soils. The role of runoff in the genesis and evolution of slope forms in the Quaternary, in regions currently thawed, is also recognized: seasonal frost uplift, which does not require the low temperatures of permafrost, likely also enhances abundant and efficient spring runoff, even on permeable rocks such as limestone, temporarily impermeable by ice lenses. These indirect effects of seasonal frost swelling are the subject of 11 new experiments at the Centre for Geomorphology in Caen.