Trouble in Alaska -- Massive Oil Pipeline is Threatened by Thawing Permafrost
upstart writes:
Trouble in Alaska? Massive oil pipeline is threatened by thawing permafrost:
Thawing permafrost threatens to undermine the supports holding up an elevated section of the [Trans-Alaska Pipeline], jeopardizing its structural integrity and raising the potential of an oil spill in a delicate and remote landscape.
The slope of permafrost where an 810-foot section of the pipeline is secured has started to shift as it thaws, causing several of the braces holding up the pipeline to twist and bend.
This appears to be the first instance that pipeline supports have been damaged by slope creep" caused by thawing permafrost, records and interviews with officials involved with managing the pipeline show.
In response, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources has approved the use of about 100 thermosyphons - tubes that suck heat out of permafrost - to keep the frozen slope in place and prevent further damage to the pipeline's support structure.
The proposed project is integral to the protection of the pipeline," according to the department's November 2020 analysis.
[...] Permafrost is ground that has remained completely frozen for at least two years straight and is found beneath nearly 85 percent of Alaska. In the last few decades, permafrost temperatures there have warmed as much as 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit.
[...] The purpose of this project is to protect the integrity of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline (mainline) from permafrost degradation," according to the company's application.
[...] Alyeska's plan to chill the permafrost with additional thermosyphons in the face of global warming, as Alaska heats up twice as fast as the global average, underscores an obvious irony: The oil industry must act to keep the permafrost frozen to maintain an infrastructure that allows it to extract more of the fossil fuels that cause the warming.
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