Research highlights rapid permafrost thaw at Point Lay, Alaska

Research highlights rapid permafrost thaw at Point Lay, Alaska

A team of scientists working with local residents has detailed the rapidly accelerating "catastrophic" permafrost thawing and infrastructure damage at the northern Alaska coastal community of Point Lay.

The rapid ground subsidence, caused by human actions and a changing climate, has extensively damaged local infrastructure and caused other public health and safety hazards, according to the work led by University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers.

Community members and researchers cite a long list of problems: unstable foundations; water and sewer failures; road hazards; listing power poles; and unmoored fire hydrants.

The changes have also affected subsistence activities and food security by altering access routes to traditional Alaska Native lands used for hunting and fishing.

"It's all coming together to create a problem that Point Lay is facing now, and it's happening 50 to 70 years faster than what models have predicted in the region," said Benjamin Jones, research associate professor at the UAF Institute of Northern Engineering and lead investigator on the research project.

"More places are going to start to resemble what's happening in Point Lay," he said.

The Point Lay research and its recommendations were published Aug. 4 in Environmental Research: Ecology. The National Science Foundation funded the project.

Point Lay, whose Iñupiaq name is Kali, is a coastal community approximately 180 miles southwest of Utqiaġvik. It has a population of about 330.

The authors describe "catastrophic, coupled permafrost and infrastructure failures" at Point Lay.

The Point Lay work originated with the UAF Institute of Arctic Biology and continues under the UAF Alaska Coastal Cooperative's ACTION project.

ACTION is a collaboration among Point Lay and several other coastal communities, Arizona State University, the University of Northern Iowa and the University of Texas at El Paso. It is funded by a $13.9 million National Science Foundation grant awarded in 2023.

ACTION's goal isto help the selected communities respond to coastal erosion, flooding, permafrost thaw and other hazards attributed to environmental change.

"One of the key ways we are doing this is by building on existing positive relationships and projects to fill data gaps and address current priorities," said Chris Maio of the UAF Geophysical Institute and UAF Alaska Coastal Cooperative.

Maio is one of the research paper's co-authors, along with Mikhail Kanevskiy, Billy Connor and Yuri Shur of the UAF Institute of Northern Engineering; and Jana Peirce of the UAF Institute of Arctic Biology. Other co-authors are from the Native Village of Point Lay, U.S. Geological Survey and Ukpeaġvik Inupiat Corporation Science.

What they found

Researchers determined that approximately 60% of the residential area in Point Lay now sits on terrain containing ice wedge thermokarst, up from about 5% in 1949. An ice wedge thermokarst feature is a ground surface collapse that occurs when ice wedges melt and surrounding permafrost thaws, leaving troughs or pits.

They also found widespread distribution of ice wedges, with some penetrating the ground more than 40 feet. Ice wedges form over long periods as cracks in frozen ground repeatedly fill with water and freeze.

Researchers visited Point Lay from 2022 to 2024. They drilled 62 boreholes in the community and beyond, took soil samples, measured and modeled ground temperature records, conducted remote sensing analyses and interviewed residents.

"I've been in a lot of communities where foundations are built on pilings in permafrost on the North Slope, and you see some signs of permafrost thaw and thermokarst," said Jones, who has been working in Arctic Alaska for 25 years. "But it is everywhere in Point Lay."

Point Lay Fire Chief Kuoiqsik Curtis, a member of ACTION's Community Advisory Board and co-author on the study, said the rapid permafrost thawing is a public safety hazard.

Underground water line breaks affect the usefulness of fire hydrants, and sinkholes present injury risks to residents, Curtis said. Ground beneath many houses has collapsed, exposing several feet of support pilings.

"Houses that were once single-story buildings are now at a height of two stories in some places," he said.

His community is looking for answers.

"How long until it is irreversible?" Curtis said. "And what can we do to help slow the process?"

What's next?

Solutions can best be achieved by viewing the impacts of infrastructure as a system rather than a collection of individual structures and by incorporating local knowledge, the authors state.

They list several recommendations, many of which the team presented at a 2023 permafrost conference that involved a site visit to observe what's happening in Point Lay. Here are some of those recommendations:

• New pile installations and, if possible, all foundations should avoid placement on near-surface ice wedges. When unavoidable, piles should be embedded deeper.
• Transition to an above-ground utility system to prevent heat transfer into permafrost.
• Conduct a communitywide drainage assessment.
• Create snow dispersal plans that avoid piling near vulnerable infrastructure.

Jones said several perspectives guided the research, including a variety of science disciplines, engineering, and community voices.

"This was a multifaceted approach to understanding a complex problem in Point Lay," he said.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS: Benjamin Jones, [email protected]; Jana Peirce, [email protected]; Chris Maio, [email protected]

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