Permafrost

A disrupted boardwalk runs in an area with dead boreal forest Alaska birch trees, standing in floodwaters amid thawing permafrost and snowmelt, at Creamer’s Field on May 6, 2023 in Fairbanks, Alaska. Since heavier precipitation came to Fairbanks beginning in 2014, mostly due to sea ice loss, hundreds of the trees have died at the site due to ongoing flooding and accelerated permafrost melt. What was once a seasonal wetland is becoming more permanent while the boardwalk has been reconstructed various times due to ground subsidence. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Alaska ‘is warming at two to three times the rate of the global average.’

Mario Tama/Getty Images

April 10, 2024

What’s the Role of the Land Carbon Sink in Achieving US Climate Goals?

Carly Phillips
Research Scientist

Melting permafrost on Alaska's North Slope. Photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech

July 11, 2019

How Alaska’s Recent Heat Wave May Worsen Climate Warming

Carly Phillips
Research Scientist

June 10, 2019

Winning at Climate Change: an Arctic and Boreal Story

Carly Phillips
Research Scientist

An old whaling site on Svalbard, Norway. Photo: Adam Markham

June 29, 2018

Rapid Warming is Creating a Crisis for Arctic Archaeology

Adam Markham
Deputy Director of Climate and Energy

August 5, 2016

Thawing Permafrost: Why It Matters

Brenda Ekwurzel
Director of Scientific Excellence