Solifluction: a model experiment.

Laboratory experiments that subjected soil to repeated freeze-thaw cycles in an inclined container revealed every process of solifluction, especially of frost creep. Multiple slope-angle effects on the amount of particle movement on the soil surface in every cycle are interpreted by several characteristic processes of frost creep. Gelifluction was found to occur in thicker layers of soil, owing to the excess water retained in soil after thawing. For further development of the problem, a similarity law for the model experiment was derived from thermal considerations.