"We've put cameras in the ground, we've put temperature equipment in the ground, and it gets flooded.
It's been known for years that the vast belts of frozen soil that underlie much of the North are thawing as the Arctic warms.
That releases greenhouse gases as organic carbon from plants and animals, once locked away in the ice, thaws and decomposes.
Climate scientists have assumed a slow, steady erosion of permafrost and a similar pace of carbon release.
Instead of a few centimetres of thaw a year, several metres of soil can destabilize within days.
Wildfires, becoming larger and hotter every year over the Canadian boreal forest, are also causing rapid permafrost thaw.
"We've got a lot of people living on top of permafrost and building infrastructure on top of permafrost. »
