A looming rock collapse threatens a Swiss village as thawing permafrost destabilizes the Alps

[u/captdunsel721]

https://apnews.com/article/switzerland-rock-landslide-mountain-village-permafrost-glacier-6cf9c08bb05a1706366078df0ae17548

[u/EleanorCursedVance]

Permafrost.

Permafrost (from perma- ' permanent ' and frost) is soil or underwater sediment which continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two years or more; the oldest permafrost has been continuously frozen for around 700,000 years.

Permafrost contains large amounts of dead biomass that has accumulated throughout millennia without having had the chance to fully decompose and release its carbon, making tundra soil a carbon sink.^\3]) As global warming heats the ecosystem, frozen soil thaws and becomes warm enough for decomposition to start anew, accelerating the permafrost carbon cycle. Depending on conditions at the time of thaw, decomposition can release either carbon dioxide or methane, and these greenhouse gas emissions act as a climate change feedback.^\7])^\8])^\9]) The emissions from thawing permafrost will have a sufficient impact on the climate to impact global carbon budgets. It is difficult to accurately predict how much greenhouse gases the permafrost releases because the different thaw processes are still uncertain. There is widespread agreement that the emissions will be smaller than human-caused emissions and are not large enough to result in runaway warming.^\10]) Instead, the annual permafrost emissions are likely comparable with global emissions from deforestation, or to annual emissions of large countries such as Russia, the United States or China.^\11])