  We investigate the spatio-temporal evolution of a Gaussian probe pulse
propagating through a four-level $N$-type atomic medium. At two-photon
resonance of probe-and control fields, weaker probe pulses may propagate
through the medium with low absorption and pulse shape distortion. In contrast,
we find that increasing the probe pulse intensity leads to a splitting of the
initially Gaussian pulse into a sequence of subpulses in the time domain. The
number of subpulses arising throughout the propagation can be controlled via a
suitable choice of the probe and control field parameters. Employing a simple
theoretical model for the nonlinear pulse propagation, we conclude that the
splitting occurs due to an interplay of Kerr nonlinearity and group velocity
dispersion.
