'Treasure' in US base reveals shocking thing from 400,000 years ago

In a secret US base, scientists found in a freezer a "treasure" forgotten since the 1960s that could reveal the planet's ancient secrets.

According to Science, a US-Belgian-Danish research team led by Dr. Andrew J.Christ from the University of Vermont (USA) examined an ancient ice core that was mined at a depth of 1,390m below the surface of Northwest Greenland.

"Treasure" from the secret base Camp Century - (Photo: UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT).

It was brought back by scientists from Camp Century, a secret US military base that operated in the 1960s.

But this nearly 4m long tube of rock and soil was lost from the freezer for decades, then unexpectedly found again in 2017.

Scientists decided to use modern techniques to analyze the details and were shocked to realize that it contained not only sediment but also leaves and moss , evidence that completely demolished the long-held view that Greenland was an impregnable ice fortress for 2.5 million years.

Since there are leaves and moss, it means there was once a lush green forest there. Which means part of Greenland was once completely ice-free.

Traces of the ice-free era stretch back to sediments from 416,000 to 400,000 years ago, according to what's revealed by a technique called "luminescence dating ," which pinpoints the exact time the sediments were exposed to sunlight.

A lush, green Greenland full of plants and animals was bad news for the rest of the world, because not only was it too hot, but it also faced sea levels 1.5-6m higher than today, a number that would submerge many cities and even parts of countries today.

The timing and manner of the ice-free period also suggest that it could very well happen again if the climate changes to a certain extent, which could happen due to human actions that destroy the environment.

NASA climate scientist Joseph MacGregor, who was not involved in the study but shares the same concerns, notes that we are now in danger of generating greenhouse gas concentrations higher than during that ice-free period.

Currently, the level of heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is up to 420 ppm, compared to 280 ppm 400,000 years ago.