In search of Permafrost

It looks like I am in search of some treasure right? Well, it is, and that too a treasure yearning to be saved - from climate change. This treasure that I was after was what generations of researchers before me termed 'permafrost'.

Permafrost is a type of ground that is permanently frosted (frozen). Now, researchers specifically define it as any landscape i.e. soil or rock on Earth that has been frozen continuously for two years or more. Unlike glaciers, we can't see permafrost. It remains underneath. You can kind of call it “sneaky” and it chooses to exist in only favorable places. Permafrost demands to be at cold places like the polar regions of the arctic and antarctic, subsea regions, and high mountain regions such as the Alps, and the Himalayas!

My first introduction to permafrost was when I was learning about my supervisors’ work. He talked about his arctic expedition, his gun training for polar bear encounters, and penguins, yes, I was fascinated. I wondered, why is it that we talk about glaciers and sea ice melting more often than permafrost degradation when we talk about climate change?

I read a few papers and found that I can probably find this stuff in Ladakh and so I had to make a trip there for treasure hunting, I mean the permafrost hunt. So, I made a trip all the way from Hyderabad in South India with a few friends on 16th August in 2021 and reached Leh, the capital of Ladakh. We soon checked into a hotel and the next day we rented our bikes, filled them up with petrol in the canister, and off we drove into the mountains!

After a week-long trek to Markha village, now it was the time for some treasure hunting. It was the noon of 27th August, around 2 pm, and Leh treats its people with searing sun rays at noon. By the time we were on the top of Tanglang la pass, it was freezing cold! These harsh extremities can all be overlooked when you look at the beautiful diamonds in the sky. Soon we reached Debring, the only place which provides accommodation at such a high altitude, parked our bikes and curled up near the cooking fire for warmth. As we were enjoying a heavenly meal with paneer, dal, roti, and rice, we learned that this Dhaba has been a choice of many researchers for years. The next morning when I was talking about permafrost and climate change to a local guy, to my surprise, I realized that he is well aware of climate change and its impacts as a local, as a witness, and as a person of knowledge. Fully energized by this rather surprising interaction, my excitement was at a different level in my treasure hunting.

Soon after breakfast, we started off to Tso Kar around 8 30 am. The climate was cold but it did not bother me anymore. I couldn’t wait to start our journey again. For the movie fans out there, Tso Kar is around 82 km from the place where Chatur meets Phunsuk Wangdu a.k.a Rancho in the popular movie 3 Idiots. Remember that dramatic scene in the movie? As usual, the searing sun rays weren't helping. To add to that, riding an Enfield bullet, rather a heavy bike for me over a talcum powder-like fine soil, was quite challenging. But hey, I was on a treasure hunt and so I did not really care! I just didn’t think much as my eyes were locked in on the horizon searching for that treasure I was after. That was the only thing I wanted to find at that moment!! The landmark to reach Tso Kar was chashme ka pani- an underground spring as advised by the local guy I spoke to in the morning. After hours of riding through challenging terrains, finally we spotted a stretch of white land surrounding a water body.

I knew I was nearing the treasure, as that was what I was after, aptly named Tso Kar (Tso= Lake, Kar = white ). How did I know? Well, as I was growing my interest in permafrost, I was also starting to do some research in permafrost as part of the Community Climate Lab

, a virtual research community in India. So I was working with some satellite data to map these grounds near the Tso Kar lake. The white stuff was salt, and I couldn’t believe how salt on the ground could be this white, I was literally blinded by the bright sun shining in its all glory!! Outside the salty region, the area was covered with tiny bumps, it's called hummocks. I saw some of these pictures from my research guide who made it a point that this sort of ground could mean there is permafrost underneath. He was showing pictures of hummocks from his field trip to Alaska earlier. They are the most common cold climate land form, especially in the regions of permafrost.

So I took my knife, all set to start digging for answers. If you were to dig into permafrost deep enough, you would find soil, sand, and rocks bound together by ice. It also serves as one of the largest organic carbon pools and this is a big deal, especially with the adverse effects of climate change.

Permafrost has a top layer called the active layer, the top part of the ground that thaws during the warmer times of the year and then gets frozen again in the cold months. This happens every year i.e. it is a seasonal cycle The rising temperature due to climate change is causing more permafrost to thaw and that too at a faster pace, causing the active layer to expand deeper into the ground. Sometimes it happens so much that the active layer does not freeze back completely during the winter months. As a consequence, the ground in these regions loses stability and if they are on a hill slope, the ground can slide which can eventually cause hazards such as landslides.

Monsoon flood of Melamchi, Nepal Photo credits: National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA)

Even the recent disasters like Chamoli and Melamchi flood disasters were suspected to be due to permafrost degradation due to rising temperatures in the Himalayas. On a global scale, permafrost is one of the major carbon pools. When it thaws, organic carbon is exposed to the atmosphere. This, upon microbial action, releases greenhouse gasses (GHG) such as CO₂ and CH₄ into the atmosphere. It is predicted that by 2100, the CO₂ released from permafrost landscapes will be more than twice the present atmospheric carbon. How scary is that!! These GHGs will then trap the heat in the atmosphere, causing the global temperatures to rise even higher. So, it is a vicious cycle of climate change impacts on these permafrost landscapes. As a result, climate change-related hazards from permafrost degradation will also become more frequent and potentially a lot more dangerous. Think about the lives of the mountain communities living on these landscapes in Ladakh and other parts of the Himalayas.

Permafrost landscapes like Ladakh around the world are home to around 5 million inhabitants. So, permafrost degradation in Ladakh and other regions in the Himalayas can directly impact all these communities. We got a lot of things to worry about and the saddest part is we know very little about the permafrost in the Himalayas! I am just starting but this entire stuff as much as it fascinates me, it also gets me worried!! I am deciding to get serious about it and planning on pursuing a career in this field.