The Big Thaw

Siberia’s Kolyma region is Earth’s largest watershed that is completely underlain by permafrost (permanently frozen ground).  During the Pleistocene, this region was a thriving tundra steppe ecosystem.  Mammoths, wooly rhinoceros, and wild horses walked the land.  Their remains, and the grasses they nourished, became compacted and frozen into the permafrost soil.  When these mega-herbivores died out, a boggy taiga forest replaced the grasslands.  But buried just below the surface is 1,500 Gigatons of carbon—more than four times the amount of carbon stored in all of the forests on earth…  a carbon bomb waiting to go off.

In the last few decades, global climate change has led to unprecedented temperature rise in the Arctic.  Soil that had been locked in the permafrost ‘freezer’ is now thawing, releasing Pleistocene-era carbon back into the streams, lakes, and rivers.  There, hungry microbes devour it, releasing carbon dioxide and methane gases as a byproduct.  These potent greenhouse gases, added to the high levels already present in the atmosphere, fuel a dangerous feedback cycle.

A team of researchers and undergraduate students has been studying the Arctic region every summer since 2008 through a project called Polaris.  Braving endless hordes of mosquitoes, quicksand, and extreme temperatures, the Polaris science team is following the carbon—from the permafrost to the streams, lakes, rivers, and ultimately the Arctic Ocean—in a quest to unravel one of the biggest questions facing science—and humanity.

I have documented seven expeditions to Siberia and the Alaskan Arctic for the Woodwell Climate Research Center to document the students, the science, and the environment using still photographs and audio/video recordings.

Read more in my 2019 hardcover book The Big Thaw (Mountaineers Press / Braided River, 2019). This work has also been featured in numerous editorial publications including GEO, Science, BBC Focus, Ensia, Préserver, and Natural History magazines.