3D Permafrost Thaw Cross-Section Simulator

Permafrost Cross-Section

Summer surface warming +6.0°C

Snow / moss insulation 0.50

Ice wedge density 0.55

Active-layer depth

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Ground subsidence

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Season day

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Methane vent rate

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How it works

This is the same heat-diffusion thaw front as the 2D chart version, but read as a physical block of ground instead of a plot: a grid of soil columns each thaws downward independently based on the ice wedges packed beneath it, and once a column's ice wedge melts, that column's surface loses support and subsides — carving the thermokarst pits and slumping seen at real thaw sites. Waterlogged, subsided columns vent rising methane bubbles, visualizing anaerobic decomposition directly instead of a percentage gauge.

thaw(column) = diffuse(T, k(ice_wedge))
subsidence(column) += meltedIceVolume · settleRate
vent(column) = waterlogged(column) ? poissonBubble(t) : none

Summer surface warming — raises the heat pushed into every column each season; higher values thaw more columns fully.
Snow / moss insulation — damps how much of that surface warming reaches the ground, visibly slowing the thaw front across the whole block.
Ice wedge density — denser wedges hold more ice per column, so melting each one takes longer but produces deeper subsidence once it goes.
Methane bubbles — toggle the particle vents rising from waterlogged, subsided columns, mirroring how anaerobic microbial decomposition in flooded thaw pockets is the dominant source of permafrost methane release.

Real-world relevance: this column-by-column subsidence is exactly what satellite radar (InSAR) and thermal-infrared surveys look for from orbit — uneven ground settling is often the first visible sign of permafrost degradation, arriving before any single borehole reading crosses 0°C.

Frozen ground Thawed / active layer Ice wedge (intact) Methane bubble

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