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6 weird things that came out of nature's deep freeze and 1 we should worry about.

Some amazing things are buried up there in the Arctic.

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League of Conservation Voters

I desperately need to clean out my freezer. There are things there I'd swear I haven't seen in years. What is this? Chicken? Why do I have frozen tamales? When did I eat sweet potatoes?

Well, it turns out Mother Nature has this conundrum too.


The permafrost is kind of like nature’s own deep freeze.

The permafrost is a band of permanently frozen land that rings the Arctic Circle, and it makes up about a quarter of all the land in the Northern Hemisphere. Some sections can be nearly a mile thick! And though the top layer may thaw and re-freeze as the seasons change, the lower levels stay ice cold and rock solid.

Which makes it an amazing place to find old, preserved things. Some of which are, frankly, astounding.

Without further ado, here are six of the weirdest things to come out of the permafrost.

1. Ancient plants

The ancient plants would have looked similar to this white campion. Image from Manuel Anastácio/Wikimedia Commons.

In 2012, a team of Russian scientists revived 30,000-year-old plants they found frozen in the tundra. The plants appeared to be an ancient form of narrow-leafed campion and were found in the cache of an ice-age ground squirrel.

The scientists brought the plants back to the lab and, through a little coaxing, were able to actually grow new specimens. They even flowered and produced new seeds!

2. Giant viruses

Image from AJC/Flickr.

Inspired by the Russian team’s success with the plant, other scientists wanted to see what else they could find preserved in the permafrost. By fishing through samples of permafrost, the scientists found a 30,000-year-old monster of a virus dubbed Pithovirus sibericum.

The virus was staggering large, nearly the size of a bacteria. If you don't know viruses, that's like finding a cat the size of an rhino. What’s more, it seems almost alien — two-thirds of its proteins are unlike those of any other virus. No need to worry, however, as it appears to only hunt amoebas. We’re not on the menu.

3. Woolly mammoths

Image from Yatadeihom/Wikimedia Commons.

In 2007, a reindeer breeder named Yuri Khudi found something odd in the frozen tundra of Russia's Yamal Peninsula. He trekked over 150 miles to notify a local museum director. When authorities arrived, they found a nearly 42,000-year-old baby mammoth.

The baby (which had been moved to outside a local store) was named Lyuba after Khudi's wife. Lyuba is one of the best-preserved mammoths in the world; scientists could even tell what she ate before she died.

Lyuba is only one of many mammoths unearthed in the permafrost. Other ice-age animals have been found too, like horses and woolly rhinos.

4. Really weird shapes

Image from Emma Pike/Wikimedia Commons.

Not everything that comes out of the tundra is alive. Sometimes the Earth itself gets freaky.

These weird shapes include small, volcano-shaped hills called pingos (which some people have claimed to have seen explode like massive, icy landmines), ice wedges, and geometric shapes made of rocks. These weird shapes happen when water in the ground keeps freezing and thawing.

In the last few years people have even reported massive craters. The craters were probably made when underground gases built up and exploded outward.

5. Human bodies

A scene from Svalbard nearly 100 years ago. Image from Richard Fleischhut/Wikimedia Commons.

People sometimes bury bodies in the frozen ground. And sometimes those bodies don’t stay buried.

In the 1980s, for instance, a river exposed a mass grave near Pokhodsk, Siberia. There are some fears that bodies like these could be reservoirs for past diseases. In 1998, six frozen bodies in Svalbard were found to have traces of the Spanish flu, which killed 50 million to 100 million people in the early 20th century.

6. Puppies

Image from Jonathan Kriz/Flickr.

Scientists have found dogs in the permafrost, including a family of puppies. The animals were likely buried in a landslide and were in amazing condition, considering they were over 10,000 years old.

"The condition of our new find is perfect," Sergei Fedorov, head of exhibitions at the Mammoth Museum of Yakutsk, told The Siberian Times. "It is preserved from nose to tail, including the hair."

The dog could be one of the earliest domesticated breeds and may even be the same kind of dog that crossed the Arctic land bridge into North America along with people.

But there's something else coming out of the permafrost. And it's not so much weird as it is a bit worrisome.

Besides puppies and mammoths, the permafrost has also trapped a lot of old organic matter, like peat moss and decayed plants. If the permafrost thaws and that stuff starts to rot, it could release a lot of methane and carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

And it looks like a huge thaw is on the way. Climate change could thaw a quarter of Alaska's near-surface permafrost by 2100. Other parts of the world are expected to lose just as much, and 60% of the world's permafrost may be gone by the end of the next century.

If that 60% happens, it will release an estimated 190 billion tons of carbon dioxide — as much as half of all human activity has released since the industrial age. And the trapped methane could have an even bigger impact — the equivalent of another 7.5 billion to 400 billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.

Image from "Steven Universe."*

That would have a massive impact on the atmosphere and could fundamentally change our global climate.

Luckily, there's something we can do. Stop leaving the freezer door open already.

Slowing our own carbon emissions is one of the best ways we have of reducing climate change and keeping the permafrost perma-frosty.

As cool as all these discoveries are, I don't mind it if some things stay frozen for the sake of our world.

If you're as sick of this defrosting as me, consider signing this petition from the League of Conservation Voters showing the government your support for the Clean Power Plan.

Identity

Celebrate International Women's Day with these stunning photos of female leaders changing the world

The portraits, taken by acclaimed photographer Nigel Barker, are part of CARE's "She Leads the World" campaign.

Images provided by CARE

Kadiatu (left), Zainab (right)

True

Women are breaking down barriers every day. They are transforming the world into a more equitable place with every scientific discovery, athletic feat, social justice reform, artistic endeavor, leadership role, and community outreach project.

And while these breakthroughs are happening all the time, International Women’s Day (Mar 8) is when we can all take time to acknowledge the collective progress, and celebrate how “She Leads the World.

This year, CARE, a leading global humanitarian organization dedicated to empowering women and girls, is celebrating International Women’s Day through the power of portraiture. CARE partnered with high-profile photographer Nigel Barker, best known for his work on “America’s Next Top Model,” to capture breathtaking images of seven remarkable women who have prevailed over countless obstacles to become leaders within their communities.

“Mabinty, Isatu, Adama, and Kadiatu represent so many women around the world overcoming incredible obstacles to lead their communities,” said Michelle Nunn, President and CEO of CARE USA.

Barker’s bold portraits, as part of CARE’s “She Leads The World” campaign, not only elevate each woman’s story, but also shine a spotlight on how CARE programs helped them get to where they are today.

About the women:

Mabinty

international womens day, care.org

Mabinty is a businesswoman and a member of a CARE savings circle along with a group of other women. She buys and sells groundnuts, rice, and fuel. She and her husband have created such a successful enterprise that Mabinty volunteers her time as a teacher in the local school. She was the first woman to teach there, prompting a second woman to do so. Her fellow teachers and students look up to Mabinty as the leader and educator she is.

Kadiatu

international womens day, care.org

Kadiatu supports herself through a small business selling food. She also volunteers at a health clinic in the neighboring village where she is a nursing student. She tests for malaria, works with infants, and joins her fellow staff in dancing and singing with the women who visit the clinic. She aspires to become a full-time nurse so she can treat and cure people. Today, she leads by example and with ambition.

Isatu

international womens day, care.org

When Isatu was three months pregnant, her husband left her, seeking his fortune in the gold mines. Now Isatu makes her own way, buying and selling food to support her four children. It is a struggle, but Isatu is determined to be a part of her community and a provider for her kids. A single mother of four is nothing if not a leader.

Zainab

international womens day, care.org

Zainab is the Nurse in Charge at the Maternal Child Health Outpost in her community. She is the only nurse in the surrounding area, and so she is responsible for the pre-natal health of the community’s mothers-to-be and for the safe delivery of their babies. In a country with one of the world’s worst maternal death rates, Zainab has not lost a single mother. The community rallies around Zainab and the work she does. She describes the women who visit the clinic as sisters. That feeling is clearly mutual.

Adama

international womens day, care.org

Adama is something few women are - a kehkeh driver. A kehkeh is a three-wheeled motorcycle taxi, known elsewhere as a tuktuk. Working in the Kissy neighborhood of Freetown, Adama is the primary breadwinner for her family, including her son. She keeps her riders safe in other ways, too, by selling condoms. With HIV threatening to increase its spread, this is a vital service to the community.

Ya Yaebo

international womens day, care.org

“Ya” is a term of respect for older, accomplished women. Ya Yaebo has earned that title as head of her local farmers group. But there is much more than that. She started as a Village Savings and Loan Association member and began putting money into her business. There is the groundnut farm, her team buys and sells rice, and own their own oil processing machine. They even supply seeds to the Ministry of Agriculture. She has used her success to the benefit of people in need in her community and is a vocal advocate for educating girls, not having gone beyond grade seven herself.

On Monday, March 4, CARE will host an exhibition of photography in New York City featuring these portraits, kicking off the multi-day “She Leads the World Campaign.

Learn more, view the portraits, and join CARE’s International Women's Day "She Leads the World" celebration at CARE.org/sheleads.


Health

Over or under? Surprisingly, there actually is a 'correct' way to hang a toilet paper roll.

Let's settle this silly-but-surprisingly-heated debate once and for all.

Elya/Wikimedia Commons

Should you hang the toilet paper roll over or under?



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Humans have debated things large and small over the millennia, from the democracy to breastfeeding in public to how often people ought to wash their sheets.

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Photo via iStock.

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Photo via iStock.

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