Thermokarst Lake Bank Erosion & Drainage

A small pond on ice-rich permafrost is rarely stable. This simulation grows a real 3D terrain grid from a seed pond by modelling lateral thermal erosion of its banks and vertical talik deepening of its floor, both driven by summer water temperature and the ground's excess-ice content. Watch the shoreline retreat cell by cell as ice-rich banks thaw and collapse, the lake deepen where a permanently unfrozen talik forms beneath it, and — if it reaches the lower outlet channel cut into the surrounding terrain — drain catastrophically over a few simulated years into a dry, tan drained lake basin, the same process that has turned much of the Arctic tundra into a mosaic of round lakes and flat former lake floors.