From the air, Wainwright, Alaska, looks like a perfectly stable band of homes and roads between the Chukchi Sea and a vast, flat tundra. But just below the surface, the frozen ground that this town was built on contains large bodies of ice. Along the eroding coastal bluffs, that hidden ice is becoming exposed and literally melting away.
This is more than a landscape change. When ice within frozen ground, known as permafrost, melts, roads can sink, buildings can tilt, pipelines can crack and leak, and shorelines can retreat, leaving homes precariously close to the ocean’s edge. A study in 2025 estimated that permafrost thaw could cost Alaska US$37 billion to $51 billion just in building and road damage.
