The Current State of Permafrost

Dr. Vladimir Romanovsky from UAF at the Toolik Lake research station, Alaska.

Dr. Vladimir Romanovsky from UAF at the Toolik Lake research station, Alaska.

© Dr. Sergey Marchenko / Permafrost Lab, Geophysical Institute UAF

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Full Gallery

  • Dr. Vladimir Romanovsky from UAF at the Toolik Lake research station, Alaska.
  • This eroded hillside gives a nice cross-section of soil in the Arctic and nicely illustrates its different layers. The top layer of the soil is the active layer of the soil, which freezes and thaws from winter to summer. Below the active layer lies the permafrost, which quite visibily contains ice crystals.
  • Dr. Romanovsky describes the measurements taken at the Permafrost Observatory at Imnaviat Creek, North Slope, Alaska.
  • Observing a site with new thermokarst development on North Slope, Alaska. Thermokarst forms when the ice in permafrost melts and forms an irregular land surface with hollows and humps.
  • Underground ice melting at a thermokarst site on North Slope, Alaska.
  • Dr. Kenji Yoshikawa from UAF drilling a shallow borehole, Canadian High Arctic.
  • Temperature sensors were installed in the boreholes Dr. Yoshikawa drilled.
  • One of the consequences of thawing permafrost is the phenomenon of
  • Location of the different regions of permafrost (continuous, discontinuous, sporadic and isolated) in the Northern Hemisphere. Glaciers and the Greenland Ice Sheet are violet, and Arctic Sea Ice is light blue.
  • Three different permafrost regions are illustrated in this image. The drawing on the left illustrates continuous permafrost while the one in the centre shows discontinuous permafrost and the one on the right sporadic permafrost. When permafrost melts, it releases carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere. This illustration comes from the CZE animation entitled
  • Projected changes in the Arctic climate, 2090:

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