Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU), NSF NHERI 2024: Temperature Gradient Change during Permafrost Thawing in a Centrifuge

This research project focuses on the thermal gradient change of permafrost using a centrifuge. As climate change is becoming more of an issue, permafrost is thawing, so this project looks at the thawing rate and depth in a scaled-up model. The data and procedure can be used by other researchers looking to find a solution for melting permafrost in the cold region. This project is unique because not much research has been done in this field, meaning there is much information to uncover about permafrost thawing. The audience for this is people who aren’t sure about how global warming is affecting permafrost, and researchers who want to further develop this experimental method to mitigate the damage to infrastructure built on permafrost.