Permafrost

Map showing the extent and types of permafrost in the Northern Hemisphere.

Two men dig in Alaska to study soil. A jackhammer is used to break the hard permafrost

In geology, permafrost is soil that stays frozen all year. To be called permafrost, soil must stay at or below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years. Permafrost is also called cryotic soil. Most permafrost is on land close to the North and South poles. Other permafrost is found in high mountain areas. ^[1] When permafrost melts, carbon dioxide is released which can be bad for the environment.

Permafrost Media

Vertical Temperature Profile in Permafrost (English Text)
Massive blue ground ice exposure on the north shore of Herschel Island, Yukon, Canada.^[source?]
Several types of massive ground ice, including ice wedges and intrasedimental ice within the cliff wall of a retrogressive thaw slump located on the southern coast of Herschel Island within an approximately 22-metre (72 ft) by 1,300-metre (4,300 ft) headwall.^[source?]
A peat plateau complex south of Fort Simpson, Northwest Territories.
Cracks forming at the edges of the Storflaket permafrost bog in Sweden.
Recently thawed Arctic permafrost and coastal erosion on the Beaufort Sea, Arctic Ocean, near Point Lonely, Alaska in 2013.
Thawing permafrost in Herschel Island, Canada, 2013.
Permafrost and ice in Herschel Island, Canada, 2012.

References

↑ Schuur, Ted (2016). "Thawing Permafrost Would Accelerate Global Warming. Thawing Arctic tundra will likely speed up climate change for a century or more. The question is: How drastically?". Scientific American. 315 (December 2016): 56–61. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1216-56. PMID 28004690. Retrieved 25 November 2016.

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[1] Schuur, Ted (2016). "Thawing Permafrost Would Accelerate Global Warming. Thawing Arctic tundra will likely speed up climate change for a century or more. The question is: How drastically?". Scientific American. 315 (December 2016): 56–61. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1216-56. PMID 28004690. Retrieved 25 November 2016.

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