ten times that of the equator. Thawing permafrost Two-thirds of Arctic coasts are not rock, but rather permanently frozen soft soil – better known as “permafrost”. Approximately half of the Earth´s carbon [...] carbon are stored underground, and this is mainly contained in the permafrost soils of the northern hemisphere. When permafrost thaws, also as a result of climate change, car- bon dioxide and methane are [...] for example submarine permafrost. Rising wa- ter temperatures could also cause this ice mass to thaw. In the western Laptev Sea in Siberia, for instance, the submarine permafrost currently has a temperature