Over the past several decades, the Arctic has begun to show signs of significant ecological upheaval. The rate of warming in the Arctic is nearly twice the global average, and those changes are triggering a cascade of destabilizing environmental effects. Ice is melting, permafrost is thawing, and experts say fires in Arctic forests are as damaging as they've been in 10,000 years.

But new research suggests that the same factors driving the Arctic's changing climate are fueling a geological response that could play a small part in counteracting those changes' malign effects.