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Science Quickly

Journey to the Thawing Edge of Climate Change

Science Quickly

Scientific American

Science

4.41.4K Ratings

🗓️ 6 October 2023

⏱️ 9 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What is a permafrost thaw slump? Just imagine a massive hole with an area the size of more than nine football fields—and growing—where ice-cold ground once stood. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

There's help for households. If you've reached State Pension Age and your weekly income is below

0:04.9

£201.5P or £306.85 if you live with a partner, you could be eligible for pension credit,

0:11.6

even if you own your home or have savings. If you're eligible, that's worth £3,500 a year

0:17.1

on average and you can get help with heating bills, council tax and more, plus cost of living payments.

0:22.7

Search Pension Credit or call 0800 991234. Qualifying income level may be higher in some circumstances.

0:52.9

That's Steve Coquel and the reason he has to be on the lookout for grizzlies has everything to do

1:00.4

with where we're standing right now. We're in the Northwest Territories. That's the Northwest

1:12.8

Territories in the high Canadian Arctic. Hey, I'm Jess Bentley and I'm out here just north of the Arctic

1:22.1

Circle to take you on a journey to the thawing edge of climate change. Over the next three episodes

1:30.6

of science quickly will be mucking around in a part of the world that's warming faster than just

1:36.1

about any other. Just a few years ago the tundra here was frozen solid and now there's a massive

1:43.2

hole with an area the size of more than nine football fields and growing.

1:52.6

The ground is disappearing under our feet. I'm trying not to get too close because there's a 20 meter

1:59.6

drop off and I'm going to say meters because I'm kidding him. Just getting that out of the way.

2:06.3

This used to be a landscape shaped by ice. Now it's being completely transformed.

2:13.9

But let's get back to Steve. He's here to study that now not so perma permafrost.

2:21.1

We're on the Peele Plateau. Steve works for the Northwest Territories Geological Survey. He has

2:26.1

a constant entourage of students and he's wearing an amazing Canadian lumberjack uniform.

2:32.4

Behind me is a type of permafrost landslide called a retrogressive thaw slump. It's a type of

2:37.5

permafrost landslide that forms in areas where the permafrost contains a lot of ice.

2:42.6

That thaw slump he's talking about that's the hole. To picture it you have to imagine

2:48.8

what it would look like if a massive mound of earth just sort of turned into molasses it started

...

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