Sampling permafrost: The world’s quietest climate change threat

What are the sounds you think of when you hear the words “climate change?”

While overt threats like raging forest fires or hurricanes may come to mind, there’s something much quieter that, despite sounding like it could be a brand of toothpaste, has a significant impact on our climate: permafrost.

What is permafrost?

Sometimes referred to as an “invisible threat,” permafrost is the product of earth material like rocks or soil that stays at or below 0°C for consecutive years. There are approximately nine million square miles of area covered by permafrost—nearly the size of the United States, China, and Canada combined.

Permafrost holds nearly twice as much carbon as what exists in the atmosphere right now. As the planet warms, the ground thaws and releases that carbon among other gases, creating a vicious cycle of warming—hence, the invisible threat.

Capturing the sound of climate change

In recognition of Earth Day, Charles Van Kirk traveled to Alaska along with composer David Crowell and Splice’s team in the video above to try and sonify permafrost. They met with scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks to interview them about permafrost research and recorded extensive field recordings and saxophone performances in and around Denali National Park.

“In this era when climate protections are being rolled back seemingly every minute, something like the Wilderness Act of 1964 is a pretty refreshing concept,” Van Kirk shares. “This is a law that states, rather poetically: ‘A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.'”

“Part of this is transforming sounds from drunken forests directly into music, but I think it’s also about imagination, about trying to bring to life the idea of the sinister contents—carbon, methane, and iron—frozen under our feet. It’s about trying to be good visitors who will not remain.”

Incorporate sounds from our Permafrost sample pack into your own productions:

April 22, 2025

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Harrison Shimazu

Harrison Shimazu is a composer, content strategist, and writer who’s passionate about democratizing music creation and education. He leads the Splice blog and produces vocaloid music as Namaboku.