Arctic infrastructure was built on frozen ground that’s starting to thaw – drones can help spot the permafrost changes coming
A view of Wainwright, Alaska, which sits on low-lying coastal terrain underlain by permafrost. Ming Xiao From the air, Wainwright, Alaska , looks like a perfectly stable band of homes and roads between the Chukchi Sea and a vast, flat tundra. But just below the surface, the frozen ground that this…
Résumé
Arctic towns built on ice
The town of Wainwright in Alaska appears stable from above, but beneath its surface lies a hidden threat: large bodies of ice within the frozen ground, known as permafrost.
Permafrost is ground that remains at or below 0°C (32°F) for at least two consecutive years.
As Arctic temperatures rise two to three times faster than the global average, this ice is melting, causing the ground to sink and destabilize.
Roads, buildings, and pipelines built on this thawing ground can tilt, crack, or collapse.
In Alaska alone, permafrost thaw could cost between $37 billion and $51 billion in building and road damage by 2025.
Along the coast, melting ice exposes the ground to erosion, bringing the ocean closer to homes and infrastructure.
For example, in Utqiaġvik, Alaska, a bluff partially collapsed in 2023 and 2024, narrowing the distance between eroding land and buildings.
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