Siberia's permafrost melt is causing swamps, lakes, making land difficult to live on

The land affected becomes largely useless for agriculture and infrastructure.

YAKUTSK, Russia -- Thirty years ago, the road out from the village of Mai was flat. So were the fields around it, enough that local people used to play football on them.

But today, the road and fields around this town in the remote Siberian region of Yakutia, are strangely warped, an expanse of wavy ground and weird bubble-like mounds, that a drive over will bounce passengers out of their seats.

"This plot of land was very flat. In 1994, we played football, volleyball on it," Petr Yefremov, a local scientist who grew up in the village, told ABC News. "And you see, in that time, it's fallen like that."

The odd ground around the village is a sign of how in Siberia climate change is literally re-shaping the landscape, as rapidly warming temperatures start to alter what has long been a given in much of Russia's vast hinterland: that the ground is frozen.