Permafrost in Alaska

Alaska sits atop one of the world's largest expanses of permafrost — ground that remains frozen year-round, in some places to depths of hundreds of metres. This visualization lets you draw a profile line anywhere across the state and see how permafrost-bearing soils (Gelisols) compare with other soil types along that transect.

As the Arctic warms, permafrost thaws — releasing stored carbon, destabilizing infrastructure, and altering drainage patterns across vast areas. Understanding where and how densely permafrost soils are distributed is a key part of modelling these changes.

Dataset

Hugelius, G., Tarnocai, C., Broll, G., Canadell, J. G., Kuhry, P., & Swanson, D. K. (2013). The Northern Circumpolar Soil Carbon Database: spatially distributed datasets of soil coverage and soil carbon storage in the northern permafrost regions. Earth System Science Data, 5, 3–13. doi:10.5194/essd-5-3-2013

Source

Northern Circumpolar Soil Carbon Database, compiled by Hugelius et al., 2013. Licence: Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC BY 3.0). Access date: 01/12/2025.