Russia is losing about 500,000 square kilometers of coast annually due to melting permafrost and sediment erosion in the northern seas, TASS reported, quoting Dmitry Drozdov, Professor of Geology and Mineralogy and Acting Director of the Earth Cryosphere Institute at the Siberian branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, TASS reported.

"We are losing a land mass almost as large as Andorra annually due to permafrost melting on our Arctic coast. How does this happen? As waves hit permanently frozen soil they transmit heat which causes it to melt. The content of ice in permafrost is about 80 percent, so there is almost no sediment left. The waves then attack the next strip of the coast," Prof. Drozdov explained.

Drozdov believes that attempts to save the coastline from erosion by reinforcing it are useless because ice will continue to melt. "This is a natural and inevitable process," he added.