In the vast white expanse around Churapcha in eastern Siberia, the ever more rapid thaw of the permafrost is changing the landscape, cracking up houses and releasing greenhouse gases.
A growing number of little mounds are appearing across the region of Yakutia in the Russian Far East.
Known as “bylars” in the Yakut language, the tiny hillocks are no more than a meter high and have an almost regular polygonal shape.
“The peaks of these formations are stable. It is the space between the mounds that is sinking,” said Nikita Tananayev, director of the climate laboratory at the Federal Northeastern University in the regional capital Yakutsk.
“With climate change, the ice is melting faster,” he told AFP.
The mounds’ distinctive shape is due to the fact that the underground ice that is melting is shaped in polygons.
Permafrost is a layer of soil that is never supposed to thaw and covers around 65% of Russia’s territory.
The thaw is also releasing more carbon dioxide and methane—two greenhouse gases that were preserved in the ice for thousands of years.