Wildfires Trigger Long-Term Permafrost Thawing

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https://eos.org/articles/wildfires-trigger-long-term-permafrost-thawing

Source:  By Katherine Kornei, Eos/AGU. 

Excerpt: Permafrost underlies much of the far north, but this amalgam of ice and frozen soil is far from stable—it’s thawing as temperatures rise worldwide. That’s bad news because permafrost is a significant repository of carbon, which can be readily converted into carbon dioxide, a major greenhouse gas. ...Siberia has been plagued by many blazes recently, said Roger Michaelides, a geophysicist at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden not involved in the research, and there’s no sign of the fires abating. “With climate change, wildfire frequency and severity are expected to increase.” ...“The fire itself doesn’t melt permafrost directly.” Rather, a blaze eradicates vegetation, which reflects and absorbs sunlight. When that insulating layer is lost, the ground heats up more readily, causing permafrost to thaw....  

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