<\/p>
Permafrost \u2014 ground that remains frozen for more than two years straight \u2014 underlies nearly one-quarter of the land in the northern hemisphere. The deepest parts extend a mile into the Earth, and the oldest parts are more than 600,000 years old.<\/p>\n
But as the world warms, the permanence of the permafrost is being undermined in many places, including Canada, Alaska and Siberia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Technically, permafrost doesn\u2019t melt, it thaws<\/a>. But you\u2019re right to be concerned; scientists estimate that by 2100, as much as two-thirds of the Arctic\u2019s near-surface permafrost could be lost<\/a>. And yes, this could potentially unearth viruses and bacteria that have been sequestered for tens of thousands of years.<\/p>\n In 2016, a 12-year-old boy died<\/a> and around 100 people became sick with anthrax poisoning in a region of Siberia that hadn\u2019t seen an outbreak in over 70 years. Scientists think the outbreak was caused by anthrax spores released from a decades-old reindeer carcass that was newly exposed by thawing permafrost.<\/p>\n A single gram of permafrost can contain thousands of dormant microbe species. Scientists fear that a thaw could not only unearth diseases we thought we had conquered \u2014 including smallpox and bubonic plague \u2014 but also release ancient pathogens<\/a> against which we currently have no natural immunity and no effective antibiotics or vaccinations.<\/p>\n The main mitigating factor will be the extent to which humans come into contact with these emerging threats. Today, fewer than five million people live in northern permafrost regions<\/a>. But as the world warms, new shipping routes become viable, and resource extraction, commerce and tourism in the Arctic increase, we run the risk of people encountering ancient pathogens<\/a> \u2014 and spreading them around the world.<\/p>\n Read more:<\/strong><\/p>\n Asked by: Luke Russell, Wakefield<\/strong><\/p>\n To submit your questions email us at questions@sciencefocus.com (don\u2019t forget to include your name and location)<\/em><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Ceri Perkins Published: Tuesday, 10 May 2022 at 12:00 am Permafrost \u2014 ground that remains frozen for more than two years straight \u2014 underlies nearly one-quarter of the land in the northern hemisphere. The deepest parts extend a mile into the Earth, and the oldest parts are more than 600,000 years old. But as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":12998,"template":"","categories":[30],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"2"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/will-melting-permafrost-release-ancient-viruses-and-bacteria.jpg",1200,511,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/will-melting-permafrost-release-ancient-viruses-and-bacteria-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/will-melting-permafrost-release-ancient-viruses-and-bacteria-300x128.jpg",300,128,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/will-melting-permafrost-release-ancient-viruses-and-bacteria-768x327.jpg",768,327,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/will-melting-permafrost-release-ancient-viruses-and-bacteria-1024x436.jpg",800,341,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/will-melting-permafrost-release-ancient-viruses-and-bacteria.jpg",1200,511,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/42\/2022\/05\/will-melting-permafrost-release-ancient-viruses-and-bacteria.jpg",1200,511,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Ceri Perkins Published: Tuesday, 10 May 2022 at 12:00 am Permafrost \u2014 ground that remains frozen for more than two years straight \u2014 underlies nearly one-quarter of the land in the northern hemisphere. The deepest parts extend a mile into the Earth, and the oldest parts are more than 600,000 years old. But as…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/12997"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcsciencefocus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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