‘A potential glimpse into the future’: Climate change has triggered ‘permafrost landslides’ with house-size blocks of ice in Canada

There’s a new type of landslide affecting northern latitudes, and it could affect more areas as the planet continues to warm.

These landslides, called permafrost detachment slides, occur in areas with relatively thin permafrost and seem to be a long-term impact of wildfire in these environments, according to a paper published Sept. 23 in the journal Geophysical Research Letters. Such slides have not been observed in the region before and may be unprecedented over the past 10,000 years or more, said study leader Joseph Young, who completed the work as part of his doctoral degree at the University of Alberta.