freeze-thaw cycles
Frost-melt repetition pattern
Freeze-thaw cycles are repeated alternations between freezing and thawing temperatures.
Water expands when it freezes, so when moisture in rock cracks or pavement seams freezes, expands, then melts and refreezes, the repeated pressure gradually widens the gaps.
This weathering process breaks apart roads, foundations, and mountainsides over time: Freeze-thaw cycles destroyed the asphalt over winter.
- frost heaveSoil expansion from ice
- weatheringAtmospheric breakdown of materials
- permafrost thawPermanently frozen soil melting
- erosionGradual wearing away
- contractionReduction in size
spalling · phase transition · potholes · winter weather · frost formation · wedging · melting · cracks · fracture · geomorphology · damage · splitting · ice · heave · temperature · seasonal · winter · spring
- spring thawsnowmelt, thaw, meltwater, icicles, ice breakup
- snowpacksnow depth, snow cover, snowpack, powder snow, stratigraphy
- tundraalpine tundra, Alaskan tundra, Siberian tundra, permafrost, permafrost layer
- permafrostpermafrost thaw, frozen ground, frozen soil, frost heave, patterned ground
- permafrost engineeringfrozen soil, permafrost thaw, frost heave, patterned ground
freeze-thaw cycleswind erosion
Land worn by air
chemical weathering · thermal expansion · abrasion · dissolution · oxidation