In the vast white expanse around Churapcha in eastern Siberia, the ever more rapid thaw of permafrost is changing the landscape, cracking up houses and releasing greenhouse gases. A growing number of little mounds are appearing across the Yakutia region in the Russian Far East, known as “bylars” in the Yakut language. They are not new, but they are multiplying due to climate change and the accelerated thawing of the permafrost, explains Nikita Tananayev, director of the climate laboratory at the North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk. "Because the climate is getting warmer, it is melting faster and faster," he says. COMPLETES 43HN8ZP + 433Q2WD IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES