World's biggest permafrost crater growing, as Earth warms earthsky.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from earthsky.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By Maxim Shemetov CHURAPCHA, Russia (Reuters) - The old airport in the Siberian settlement of Churapcha has been unusable for years, its runway transformed into a swampy field of puffed-up mounds and reliefs. Like cities and towns across northern and northeastern Russia, Churapcha is suffering the consequence of climate change thawing the permafrost https://graphics.reuters.com/CLIMATE-CHANGE/PERMAFROST/oakveelglvr/index.html on which everything is built. There isn t a single settlement in Russia s Arctic where you wouldn t find a destroyed or deformed building, said Alexey Maslakov, a scientist at Moscow State University. Homes are becoming separated from sinking earth. Pipelines and storage facilities are under threat. Roads are increasingly in need of repair. As Russia warms 2.8 times faster than the global average, the melting of Siberia s long-frozen tundra is releasing greenhouse gases that scientists fear could frustrate global efforts to curb climate-warming emissions. With per