Study: Tundra fires induce permafrost melt, land change

Wildfire on Arctic tundra can cause permafrost melt from the top down, contributing to landscape slumping, known as thermokarst. The U.S. Geological Survey study used airborne technology called LIDAR to collect billions of data points on the landscape surface. The remote sensing equipment uses lasers to build topographical maps.
USGS geographer Ben Jones led the field work. The study looked at the area burned by the Anatuvik River fire in 2007 that burned 400 square miles. Jones says they didn&r