Under the influence of the greenhouse effect, the global climate has been significantly warmed. In the polar regions, many glaciers have melted . In the Arctic , the temperature changes are especially pronounced.

As Arctic glaciers melt, the amount of reflected solar radiation decreases. The ocean also absorbs further heat, which is causing the Arctic to warm twice as much as the rest of the planet .

According to the statistics of scientists, the temperature of the Arctic Circle has risen by 3°C in 30 years. Scientists speculate that temperatures in the Arctic Circle will rise by another 10°C until the end of the century, when all Arctic glaciers may have melted.

Under such circumstances, many "prehistoric creatures" have gradually appeared in the Arctic permafrost. These creatures have reappeared on the earth after tens of thousands of years, and some are even still alive. While some animal remains allow scientists to better study prehistoric animals, there are many other things that make humans nervous .

Today, let's take a look at which "prehistoric creatures" scientists have dug up from the Arctic permafrost, and which ones make humans so nervous. In addition to the appearance of these prehistoric creatures, will the thawing of the permafrost cause other harm to the earth?

Prehistoric creatures buried for tens of thousands of years unearthed from permafrost

Permafrost is also commonly called permafrost, or permafrost. Permafrost can be divided into upper and lower layers, which are layers of soil and rocks that have remained frozen for a long time. Generally, the permafrost in the upper layer will re-freeze after thawing as the temperature changes, but the permafrost in the lower layer will remain frozen.

In recent years, scientists have dug up many "prehistoric creatures" from the Arctic permafrost during exploration in the Arctic. Let's take a look at some of them.

• remains of prehistoric animals

In 1977, the former Soviet Union's geological team found the body of a six-month-old baby mammoth in the permafrost while conducting geological exploration in a gold mine in northern Siberia . By 1999, scientists had discovered elephant tusks outcropping in the permafrost of Siberia.

This is a huge mammoth 11 feet tall and weighing 6 tons. It is estimated that this mammoth lived for about forty-seven years. In the following decades, scientists have dug up ten mammoth carcasses in the permafrost .

The corpse is well preserved

In a paper published in the journal Quaternary, scientists have discovered the carcass of cave lions in the Arctic permafrost . In 2017 and 2018, the fossils of the two lion cubs were dug up front and back at a distance of 15 meters.

At first, scientists believed that the two young cave lions, which only survived for a month or two, came from a single litter. As a result, according to the radioactive negotiation method, it was found that one of them lived 43,000 years ago, and the other lived 28,000 years ago. The two corpses were well preserved, and one of them seemed to be asleep .

Dry cave lion remains

In the summer of 2018, scientists found a body from 18,000 years ago in the Indygilka River in northeastern Yakutsk . When reappearing, its beard and eyelashes are clearly presented to people's eyes. But so far, scientists have not confirmed what kind of animal this is just a wolf, not a wolf, or a dog, not a dog.

"Party" picture

In 2019, a 14-year-old girl found a lemming with a body length of 166 mm and an age of more than 41,000 years on the banks of the Tilketia River in the Yakutia region of Siberia . This is the oldest wave on earth. lemmings. When scientists scanned its bones with X-rays, they found that the lemming's skull resembled a human skull .

Lemmings

In 2020, a group of treasure hunters looking for ivory fossils found a frozen bird in the permafrost of northeastern Siberia. After identification by scientists, it was found that the bird came from an ancient era of 44,000-48,000 years ago, and was still the ancestor of the current lark .

Scientists have also found many animals from ancient times in the permafrost. These animals still maintain their dead state after being dug up. Whether they are bones or fur, they remain lifelike. These permafrost layers are like a natural refrigerator, preserving them from tens of thousands of years ago to the present day .

Really well preserved

• Ancient nematodes resurrected from the dead

The oldest creatures on earth are nematodes . In 2018, the melting of the Arctic permafrost caused a large-scale landslide. Scientists found several frozen nematodes in these collapsed permafrost.

When the scientists took them back to the lab for thawing and defrosting, two of the worms miraculously came back to life, not only moving but also eating normally. According to scientists' speculation, these nematodes all came from 42,000 years ago . Their resurrection sent chills down people's spines .

nematodes

Although these nematodes are almost all parasitic on animals and plants, there are still a small number of parasites inside the human body and cause disease. Since these nematodes can be resurrected, it may also mean that other prehistoric creatures in the permafrost have a chance to resurrect , which is enough to make people ponder.

• 'Giant virus' in permafrost

In 2014, scientists discovered a "giant virus", which they named "Siberian wide-mouthed jar virus" , which is ten times larger than the standard twenty nanovirus. When scientists brought it back to the lab, the virus was awakened.

Siberian widemouth virus

Scientists have found that this virus has been in the permafrost for tens of thousands of years, and its reproduction method is similar to that of smallpox, which is extremely infectious .

In addition to this type of virus, there are many viruses attached to the remains of some prehistoric animals . In 2016, after the permafrost thawed, the carcass of a reindeer that had died from a disease for about 75 years was exposed. The large amount of virus it carried when it died was also released.

Soon there was a massive outbreak of anthrax in Siberia , killing more than 2,300 reindeer and infecting dozens of people, including some.

In this way, although the "prehistoric creatures" excavated from the Arctic permafrost are helpful to human research, as the permafrost melts, the released things are not well controlled by humans. Just like these viruses, humans simply cannot predict their existence. Scientists have studied these anthrax viruses and found that they do not die in the permafrost, and even the longer they are frozen, the more active they are, which means their ability to reproduce and infect is stronger .

Anthrax

Once the Arctic permafrost all melts one day, these viruses will also appear on the earth. The epidemic caused by that time may be more terrifying than the new coronavirus. In the face of these unknown viruses, human beings are also nervous. In addition, the harm caused by the melting of the Arctic permafrost does not stop there .

The dangers of thawing permafrost

The Arctic permafrost remained at the bottom of the ground until it thawed. Permafrost is generally composed of a mixture of soil, sand and ice . Once the permafrost thaws, the ground will collapse with it.

Frozen soil profile

• The permafrost melts, the ground collapses

At a power plant in the Russian city of Norilsk in 2020 due to thawing permafrost. The diesel tank suddenly collapsed, causing 21,000 tons of diesel to leak to the ground and water , causing serious ecological pollution .

In April 2021, a large building in the Arctic town of Cherkis also collapsed due to the thawing of more than 40 meters of permafrost. In Arctic Yakutia, the thawing of these permafrost layers has also turned otherwise flat roads into potholes, requiring drivers to carry sharp shovels to clear obstacles in order to move slowly.

thawing permafrost

• carbon emissions increase

In the permafrost, there are also many ancient tree roots, shrubs and animal carcasses, etc., containing 50 billion tons of organic matter, which is equivalent to the world's largest organic carbon pool in the Arctic permafrost .

Once these permafrost layers gradually melt, various animal carcasses, tree roots and tree trunks will gradually be exposed. At that time, it will cause a lot of "carbon emissions". Scientists also predict that if the permafrost in the Arctic finally thaws, there may be 100 billion carbon emissions into the atmosphere, equivalent to 270 years of global carbon emissions .

Different gases are released

In recent years, the greenhouse effect caused by carbon emissions has created many extreme weather changes . Tropical storms have killed tens of thousands of people and severe droughts in areas that were supposed to be the rainy season have left crops unable to survive. In 2021, several catastrophic floods in China also killed hundreds of people and severely affected the development of cities.

If the permafrost continues to thaw, we will only face more extreme weather in the future.

• release methane

In addition, when the microorganisms in the air degrade organic carbon, not only a large amount of carbon dioxide will be produced, but also a large amount of methane gas will be emitted .

Associating the causes and consequences of the greenhouse effect, if human carbon emissions are not controlled, our world will eventually go into a vicious circle : man-made carbon emissions → greenhouse effect → higher temperature → thawing of permafrost → release of organic carbon → decomposition For methane, carbon dioxide, mercury → the greenhouse effect is more serious...

Greenhouse effect on earth is getting worse

Methane is a more terrifying greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and the greenhouse effect caused by methane is 86 times that of carbon dioxide . In fact, the methane released by the thawing of permafrost has already had a serious impact on the earth.

When Siberia was hit by a heatwave in 2020, the limestone layers began to release methane. The released methane gas will continue the heat wave in Siberia in 2021, and it has also caused many forest fires .

Forest fire

The forest fire burned more than 80,000 square kilometers and covered an area of ​​5.3 million square kilometers, making it one of the worst air pollution incidents in history. And these heat waves may also release a large number of "methane bombs" as the permafrost melts, which will continue to affect global climate change .

Protect permafrost and reduce carbon emissions

The earth is a whole, even if we are so far away from the Arctic, even if we individually cause very little carbon emissions. But when these carbon emissions come together, they can launch a violent offensive towards the Arctic. The resulting melting of glaciers and permafrost will cause even more serious harm to us .

thawing permafrost

If it is as predicted by experts, after 200 years, there will be no large areas of frozen soil on the earth. At that time, it may cause more irreversible damage to the earth .

Therefore, what we should do is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible . Not only countries and governments should reduce industrial carbon emissions and reduce tree deforestation. We as individuals also need to reduce carbon emissions in our lives. We should reduce food waste as much as possible, choose green transportation, reduce the use of single-use items, etc.