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Arctic thaw threatens Siberian permafrost
The permafrost belt stretching across Siberia to Alaska and Canada could
start melting three times faster than expected because of the speed at which
Arctic Sea ice is disappearing.
A study found that the effects of sea-ice loss – which reached an all-time
record last summer – extend almost 1,000 miles inland to areas where the ground
is usually frozen all year round.
The smaller the area of sea ice, the less sunlight is reflected and the more
heat is absorbed. That means scientists expect a tripling in the rate of warming
over the continental land mass surrounding the Arctic. "Our study suggests that,
if sea ice continues to contract rapidly over the next several years, Arctic
land warming and permafrost thaw are likely to accelerate," said David Lawrence
of the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
Last September, the sea ice of the Arctic shrank to more than 30 per cent of its ...
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