Overall, thermokarst lakes are estimated to emit 3.8 teragrams of methane each year. Increasing annual methane emissions by up to 63%. And what if all of Earth's permafrost thawed?

Their goal was to understand the critical role of Thermokarst lakes in the carbon cycle, particularly in permafrost thawing.

It’s not a pure thermokarst lake, though some thermokarst appears to be forming around the lake’s expanding edges, tipping shoreline trees as the ice in the permafrost melts and the ground ...

It’s not a pure thermokarst lake, though some thermokarst appears to be forming around the lake’s expanding edges, tipping shoreline trees as the ice in the permafrost melts and the ground ...

Methane bubbles up from the thawed permafrost at the bottom of the thermokarst lake. Katey Walter Anthony/ University of Alaska Fairbanks. Researchers used measurements from 11 thermokarst lakes ...

The first time Katey Walter Anthony saw Esieh Lake in the western Brooks Range, she was afraid it might explode. Across the Arctic, lakes are leaking dangerous greenhouse gases.

It’s not a pure thermokarst lake, though some thermokarst appears to be forming around the lake’s expanding edges, tipping shoreline trees as the ice in the permafrost melts and the ground ...

“A thermokarst lake is born to promote itself at all costs. A full force of nature, it gnaws away at the icy, carbon-rich permafrost soils stored in the land around it.

DRI and NASA JPL engineers prepare coring device to sample thermokarst lake sediments in early November on the North Slope of Alaska.

Katey Walter Anthony has studied some 300 lakes across the tundras of the Arctic. But sitting on the mucky shore of her latest discovery, the Arctic expert said she'd never seen a lake like this one.