It occupies a fifth of the earth's surface and encloses the high latitudes with its icy hands. But the fragile giant is capable, if it thaws, of the worst (releasing greenhouse gases, viruses buried for millennia, pouring its fresh water into the oceans) as well as the best (unveiling archaeological treasures). Journey to the heart of permafrost.
In winter, the vast Mackenzie Delta cannot be accessed by sea.
Icebreakers dare not approach the mouth of Canada's largest river, which flows into the Arctic Ocean.
The area is shallow and poorly mapped.
To get there in April 2019, scientists from the Nunataryuk project - literally “from land to sea” in Inuit languages - therefore used helicopters and snowmobiles.
The goal of the team at Laval University in Quebec was to collect water samples under the ice in order to study its composition before the great spring flood.
Read also:
The thaw of permafrost, a climate time bomb
“From June, the gradual thaw
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