The Arctic is burning, threatening to open the ancient 'ice tomb' full of poisonous gas

Underneath the Arctic there is a deep layer of earth containing many ancient, undecided organisms, confined to permafrost. It will be disastrous if the grave is accidentally opened by wildfire.

A team from NASA has just issued a warning about the burning cycle that is accelerating in the forests around the Earth's north pole, mainly due to the weather's complexity in the context of climate change. Fire in no-man's area or starts with lightning.

"We are having more frequent and serious fires, larger burnt areas," said fire researcher Liz Hoy from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center.

Forest fires in the Arctic are potentially more catastrophic than emissions from fires and lost trees - (photo: NASA)

The statement is based on data collected from the Experimental Program on Vulnerable Areas in the Arctic - North (ABoVE), a field campaign that examines the resilience of ecosystems and societies. North before climate change.

Scientists warn that the damage is not only in the burnt forest but also in a deeper layer below, with catastrophe more likely. Forest fire causes intense carbon emissions, polluting the air. At the same time, a thick layer of soil in the fire area was destroyed. This layer of soil, in addition to making the substrate for plants to grow, is also the insulation for the permanent ice floor below. The soil is lost due to fire, the ice will melt.

Further down below this permafrost is the ancient soil , where countless animals and plants belong to the ancient geological layers, buried thousands of years but not decomposed because of the ice. If the ice melts, this huge tomb is "opened up", all of which will begin to decompose and emit a huge amount of carbon into the atmosphere.

ABoVE is also exploring how toxic particles released by forest fires affect the respiratory and cardiovascular systems of humans, especially those near the Arctic like people in Alaska.

This is not the first scientific study to take into account the threat of the soil beneath the Arctic permafrost. In 2018, a group of scientists headed by American geneticist George Church has vowed to regenerate mammoths to save the Arctic and the earth.

George Church's group called the soil layer of undecided organic materials under "ice tombs" as " methane time bombs" . If they are exposed, a large amount of carbon dioxide and methane will be released into the air, in which carbon emissions are equivalent to burning 2.5 times the world's forests combined. So it is necessary to have large creatures like mammoths present, helping the soil in the Arctic to be dug and compressed, creating a way for the cold to penetrate deep and lock the "ice tomb".