One region alone - Yakutia - has 5 million tons scrap metal dumped in polar regions, an ugly Soviet legacy.

Earthquakes have rattled through Port Heiden more often than usual this year. Michael West is the State Seismologist with the Alaska Earthquake Center. He took a look to compare this year’s quake numbers with other years. Listen Now

Himalaya blackberry is an introduced, perennial, spreading shrub.

Decades have passed and ponds are drying up.

Unusually rainy year for Lower Kalskag this year.

Long-term consequences.

Some unusually high waves hit Grise Fiord, Nunavut, early Saturday morning, damaging the community's shoreline, part of a road and the community freezer.

River erosion along the Yukon River near..?

Downriver from Arctic Village

State and North Slope Borough officials say Point Lay’s drinking water lake was wiped out by the nearby Kokolik River, which flooded and eroded the lake banks.

A critical artery is threatened by thawing permafrost.

Six inches of rain fell in a three hour period.

Early hay crop harvest

Possibly an effect of thawing permafrost.

Dump and hill fire

Bluff/cliff side erosion along the Ningikfak River.

It’s a vicious cycle: As the weather warms, the Earth’s permafrost is melting, releasing greenhouse gases that are going to make the planet even hotter.

River Erosion

Because ice makes up a good portion of the underground foundation of northern Alaska, thawing has dropped the landscape as much as 3 feet in some places.