This is a landscape consisting of an ice body formed by melted ice in the summer that tapers downwards through the active layer of permafrost. When the temperature drops during persistent cold weather, the water in cracks in the rock freezes. The ice layers grow through continuous freeze-thaw action, deepening and widening the cracks and putting pressure on the surrounding rock. When the ice penetrates through the active layer and wedges into the permanently frozen layer, the ice does not melt in the summer and forms an ice wedge (Fig. 8).
Ancient ice wedge landscape at Lulin, Lushan Mountain, Jiangxi Province
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(2020). Ice Wedge Landscape. In: Chen, A., Ng, Y., Zhang, E., Tian, M. (eds) Dictionary of Geotourism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2538-0_1133
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2538-0_1133
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