Arctic ice lake caught fire mysteriously

A fierce fire broke out when the scientists let a small fire near the hole be carved on the surface of Esieh ice lake.

Professor Katey Walter Anthony of the University of Alaska has released videos and pictures of her incredible experiment at Lake Esieh - a year-round frozen lake in Alaska (USA), in a region very close to the North Pole.

One scientist punched a hole in the icy lake, another held a match next to him - (cut from a clip).

Many people are familiar with images of miserable adventurers maintaining the fire in the icy Arctic. However, in Lake Esieh today, a small fire can become a disaster, creating a big fire.

The surface of the ice has just broken, the surface of the lake has burned violently - (cut from a clip)

The fire is getting stronger - (cut from clip).

The reason is due to the strange eruption of methane gas from beneath the lake , a flammable marsh gas. According to Professor Katey Walter Anthony, in the area there have been many continuous ice holes bubbling with methane.

Not only in Esieh Lake, scientists around the world are concerned about similar methane release in other icy areas, when the earth gets warmer due to the melting of climate and ice.

It is estimated that up to 1.5 trillion tons of carbon are stored under permafrost, a remnant of ancient organic matter for billions of years of earth history, locked up by nature under ice. If the ice melts away, the "mummies" below will quickly be destroyed by bacteria, releasing methane, a gas that has 23 times the destructive power of CO ₂ and can cause a global disaster.

This phenomenon has been led by the multinational research group led by American geneticist George Church, referring to the name "methane time bomb". This group of scientists is famous for its mammoth regeneration plan. According to them, large mammoth mammals are needed in the Arctic so that the snowpacks can be compressed and retain their existence, thereby preventing the "methane time bomb" from happening.

The team of scientists, led by George Church, says that if the amount of carbon beneath the permafrost is released, they will produce emissions of methane and CO ₂ equivalent to burning 2.5 times all of the forests. world.