Earth Equity News

Borehole Network Confirms Permafrost Is Thawing Worldwide. By Victoria Barber, Anchorage Arctic Sounder, August 13, 2010. "An expanded network of boreholes across the northern hemisphere has confirmed that permafrost throughout polar and sub-polar regions is thawing, say scientists who studied the topic during International Polar Year. 'You look at a whole hemisphere and see the patterns everywhere,' said Vladimir Romanovsky, a professor with the snow, ice and permafrost group at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute, and lead author of a paper [PDF, 11 pps] documenting the research. Romanovsky and his colleagues launched a campaign to improve the global network of boreholes for International Polar Year, a science program focused on the Arctic and Antarctic that ran from 2007 to 2009… Using information collected from 575 boreholes located throughout North America, Russia and the Nordic region, researchers found that permafrost temperatures during the International Polar Year were as much as 2 degrees Celsius (35.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than they were 20 or 30 years ago."