Warmer winters and thicker layers of insulating snow are spurring creation of more taliks, sections of ground that doesn’t freeze even in winter.
Arctic methane explosions — and the scientists who love to study them — are the focus of the newest episode of the public television program Nova.
New research on how climate change affects things built on or in permafrost shows this type of infrastructure will deteriorate faster than expected.
Red Dog’s problems show how climate change poses a challenge to the economy of Arctic Alaska, which is warming at triple the rate of the global average.
“We hope that this tool will be useful for engineers who [are] doing some projects in this area, for government thinking about what they should expect, and also for any people who live in Alaska,” Vladimir Romanovsky said.
Still melting – and melting fast. That’s the basic take-away from the federal government’s annual Arctic Report Card. It finds that Arctic ocean temperatures are increasing and sea ice is declining at the fastest rate in at least 1500 years.
UAF researchers reported findings from Arctic permafrost modeling that indicates thawing may dramatically affect ecosystems and infrastructure.