Measurements of gas permeability and gas fraction in thawing permafrost: permafrost climate feedback implications (opens in new tab)

Climate-driven permafrost thaw releases greenhouse gases (CO2 and CH4). Fully frozen permafrost has extremely low gas permeability, acting as a seal that limits gas migration while low temperatures also inhibit gas generation. Permeability changes during thaw–refreeze cycles, however, remain very poorly understood because of the sparsity of experimental data. We report laboratory measurements of gas fraction and gas permeability during thawing of 16 synthetic permafrost samples with a range o...