Author: Trisha Leigh Zeigenhorn / Source: did you know?
If you take a short drive north out of Fairbanks, Alaska, you might happen to see an unremarkable red shed set on the side of a hill. The door is thick, like one on the front of a freezer. Behind it is a walk through some Arctic permafrost – and, scientists believe, a ticking time-bomb.
Permafrost is frozen soil, and inside it are the preserved remains of extinct creatures. There’s even grass, still green, waiting to feel the warmth of the sun once again.
The Army dug the tunnel in the 1960s in order to study the unique surface, and they’ve learned quite a few things since then. Like, in some places the permafrost extends more than 1000 feet deep.
Now, for the first time in centuries, the Arctic permafrost is changing – warming up like an ice cream cone uneaten on a summer day.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported last November that the temperature of the Alaskan permafrost has risen more than 4 degrees F since the 1980s. Record temperatures are being set, and, according to the report, the Arctic “shows no sign of returning to reliably frozen region of recent past decades.”
So what could happen if the permafrost continues to melt?
Nothing good, it turns…
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