Permafrost covers about a fifth of the Northern Hemisphere and serves as a kind of “time capsule”, preserving the mummified remains of a number of extinct animals. However, due to global warming, these areas are beginning to thaw, releasing from their depths ancient viruses frozen tens of thousands of years ago. Scientists estimate that this could be potentially dangerous for the current inhabitants of our planet, reports CNN.
Higher temperatures caused by the global warming process are gradually melting the permafrost, a frozen layer of soil that exists in the northern Arctic regions. This leads to the potential danger of releasing viruses that have been dormant for tens of thousands of years. Experts estimate that they may threaten the health of animals and even humans, CNN reported.
Scientists warn that although the risks of any pandemic caused by an ancient virus are quite low at the moment, however, they should not be underestimated. In addition, warming can release chemical and radioactive waste left over from the Cold War, which can also harm wildlife and destroy current ecosystems, the article noted.
“Many of the things that are happening to the permafrost are alarming. And it shows why it’s critical to keep as much of the permafrost frozen as possible,” Kimberly Miner, a climatologist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California, told CNN.
Permafrost covers about a fifth of the Northern Hemisphere, supporting ecosystems in the Arctic tundra and the boreal forests of Alaska, Canada and Russia for thousands of years. It serves as a kind of “time capsule,” preserving in its depths – in addition to ancient viruses – the mummified remains of a number of extinct animals that scientists have been able to discover and study in recent years. In particular, the well-preserved remains of two cave lion minors and a woolly rhinoceros have been found, the article explains.
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