The Batagaika crater in eastern Siberia, caused by thawing permafrost, is half a mile wide and growing. The crater holds the organic remains of leaves, grasses, and animals that died thousands of years ago.
This “abrupt thaw” affects 5 percent of Arctic permafrost, but it could double the amount of warming it contributes.
In the black spruce forests along the Tanana River in central Alaska, scientists Miriam Jones and Merritt Turetsky watched for years as trees tipped, leaned, and toppled into boggy ground. Over time, the earth below weakened and grew soupy. This once-hard soil, thick with ice, was heating up, sinking and filling with rain and snow melt.
Scientists have known for decades that as rising temperatures thaw the northern latitudes, previously frozen soil called permafrost will release greenhouse gases, which in…
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Exposing the Big Game 