  Ductile compaction is common in many natural systems, but the temporal
evolution of such systems is rarely studied. We observe surprising oscillations
in the weight measured at the bottom of a self-compacting ensemble of ductile
grains. The oscillations develop during the first ten hours of the experiment,
and usually persist through the length of an experiment (one week). The weight
oscillations are connected to the grain--wall contacts, and are directly
correlated with the observed strain evolution and the dynamics of grain--wall
contacts during the compaction. Here, we present the experimental results and
characteristic time constants of the system, and discuss possible reasons for
the measured weight oscillations.

Soft Condensed Matter