WEBVTT - Is Permafrost Really Permanent?

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<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff production of iHeart Radio, Hey, brain Stuff,

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<v Speaker 1>lor and Vogel Bomb here in. A wally mammoth carcass

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<v Speaker 1>was discovered in Siberia near the coast of the Left

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<v Speaker 1>of Sea. Nicknamed Yucca, this specimen of the long extinct

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<v Speaker 1>beast died around twenty eight thousand years ago, yet her

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<v Speaker 1>body was astonishingly well preserved, complete with patches of reddened

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<v Speaker 1>for a brain that was largely intact and nucleus like

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<v Speaker 1>cell structures. So how did her body last so long

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<v Speaker 1>without rotting away? The short answer is Yuka was frozen,

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<v Speaker 1>but not inside some glacier or iceberg. After death, Yuca

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<v Speaker 1>became encased in a layer of what's known as permafrost.

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<v Speaker 1>Let's break down what that is. As we know, water

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<v Speaker 1>freezes at thirty two degrees fahrenheit or zero degrees celsius.

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<v Speaker 1>Permafrost is any ground materials such as soil, sediment, and rock,

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<v Speaker 1>that remains at or below freezing temperatures for at least

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<v Speaker 1>two consecutive years. About scent of all the land area

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<v Speaker 1>in the Northern Hemisphere is known to contain permafrost. It

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<v Speaker 1>was American paleontologist Simon W. Mueller who originally coined the

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<v Speaker 1>term permafrost, a portmanteau of the words permanent and frost.

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<v Speaker 1>Despite that name, permafrost doesn't last forever. Thanks to climate change,

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<v Speaker 1>it's been thawing in large quantities. This has serious ramifications

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<v Speaker 1>for both the environment and the economy. Generally speaking, permafrost

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<v Speaker 1>tends to occur in places where the average air temperature

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<v Speaker 1>is zero degrees celsius or lower every year. According to

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<v Speaker 1>the National Snow and Ice Data Center, most of the

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<v Speaker 1>northern hemispheres, permafrost sits between the high latitudes of sixty

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<v Speaker 1>and sixty degrees north Siberia, Canada, Alaska, and parts of

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<v Speaker 1>Scandinavia are loaded with this frigid turf. Further south, permafrost

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<v Speaker 1>tends to be found in high elevation areas like the

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<v Speaker 1>Tibetan Plateau and this was Alps. Permafrost isn't as widespread

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<v Speaker 1>below the equator, but it does underlie parts of New Zealand,

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<v Speaker 1>the and Mountains, and Antarctica. Just as its locations vary,

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<v Speaker 1>so does its composition. It's not uniform. Some sections are

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<v Speaker 1>ice free while others are made up of more than

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<v Speaker 1>thirty ice. Likewise, the depth, age and extent of permafrost

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<v Speaker 1>can vary widely. Oftentimes, permafrost sits beneath an active layer

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<v Speaker 1>of ground, that is, a layer that thaws and refreezes seasonally.

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<v Speaker 1>The permafrost itself can measure anywhere from less than three

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<v Speaker 1>feet that's one meter thick to more than five thousand

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<v Speaker 1>feet or fift thick, and it can get patchy. Northern

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<v Speaker 1>Alaska occupies a continuous permafrost zone that means permafrost underlies

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<v Speaker 1>more of the local terrain, but at lower latitudes it's

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<v Speaker 1>a different story. Pretty Much everything south of the Brooks

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<v Speaker 1>Mountain Range sits in a discontinuous permafrost zone. Here, permafrost

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<v Speaker 1>resides under a smaller percentage of the land's surface. That's

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<v Speaker 1>partially because, as counterintuitive is it may sound, snow is

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<v Speaker 1>a really good insult, so when thick blankets of snow

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<v Speaker 1>stick around all year long, they might keep the ground

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<v Speaker 1>too warm for permafrost. Likewise, in spots where permafrost already exists,

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<v Speaker 1>insulating layers of surface level snow are liable to heat

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<v Speaker 1>it up. But while snow is an impediment, Pete is

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<v Speaker 1>a boon wide spread in and around the southern Arctic

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<v Speaker 1>pete is a kind of ground material that's made up

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<v Speaker 1>of partially decayed organic matter like mosses or swamp plants.

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<v Speaker 1>By and large, the ground beneath it is kept cool

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<v Speaker 1>shielded from solar heat. Thus pete safeguards permafrost. Evergreen forests

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<v Speaker 1>lend a helping hand too. With their thickly needled branches.

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<v Speaker 1>Pine trees limit the amount of sunlight and snow that

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<v Speaker 1>hits the surface. In the process, the evergreens help keep

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<v Speaker 1>permafrost from thawing, so permafrost is common below the clustered

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<v Speaker 1>pines and high elevation and high altitude areas. The arrangement

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<v Speaker 1>is mutually beneficial. Since liquid water can't seep through hard permafrost,

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<v Speaker 1>it acts like a drainage barrier. Unfrozen water that's absorbed

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<v Speaker 1>into the active layer gets trapped there, barred from traveling

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<v Speaker 1>deeper into the earth. This water sustained some of the

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<v Speaker 1>plants that live at the surface. Although not all permafrost

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<v Speaker 1>sticks around more than a couple of years, some is

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<v Speaker 1>quite old. At minimum, the permafrost in Prudo Bay, Alaska

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<v Speaker 1>is thought to be five hundred thousand years of age,

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<v Speaker 1>and some of the permafrost beneath the Canadians Yukon territory

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<v Speaker 1>could be more than seven hundred thousand years old. Inside

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<v Speaker 1>the ladder, scientists found an ancient horse leg complete with

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<v Speaker 1>DNA samples. Permafrost can keep all kinds of organic matter

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<v Speaker 1>preserved over long periods of time. In Russian scientists regenerated

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<v Speaker 1>live hunter plants from ice age fruits that have been

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<v Speaker 1>encased in permafrost for about thirty thousand years. Unfortunately, as

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<v Speaker 1>permafrost thaws, the trapped organic material decomposes, releasing carbon and

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<v Speaker 1>methane into the atmosphere. Those gases exacerbate climate change, and

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<v Speaker 1>the bad news is According to a twenty nineteen study

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<v Speaker 1>published in Nature, Community Patians, various permafrost deposits around the

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<v Speaker 1>world have warmed up by a couple degrees between the

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<v Speaker 1>years two thousand seven and two thousand sixteen. Right now,

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<v Speaker 1>approximately one point seven billion tons of carbon is trapped

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<v Speaker 1>in permafrost. Scientists don't know how much of this will

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<v Speaker 1>be released into the atmosphere if current thawing trends continue,

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<v Speaker 1>or how quickly it will escape, but some projections are

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<v Speaker 1>not encouraging. To make matters worse. When permafrost thaws, it

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<v Speaker 1>can destabilize the landscape. In the city of Norlis, Russia alone,

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<v Speaker 1>more than one hundred residential buildings have been damaged because

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<v Speaker 1>the once solid permafrost beneath them is softening. The warming

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<v Speaker 1>of permafrost has also triggered landslides, drained lakes, and torn

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<v Speaker 1>roads apart, it's yet another reason to be concerned about

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<v Speaker 1>our contributions to climate change. But to end on a

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<v Speaker 1>positive note, remember the wooly mammoth Yucca found in Siberian permafrost.

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<v Speaker 1>She was so well preserved that in early twenty nineteen,

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<v Speaker 1>scientists were able to extract eighty eight nucleus like structures

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<v Speaker 1>from her cells an attempt to coax them back to life.

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<v Speaker 1>The team injected the nuclei into mouse ovarian cells, and

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<v Speaker 1>while the cells never fully divided, they did complete the

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<v Speaker 1>process called spindle assembly, which is a step where chromosomes

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<v Speaker 1>attached to spindle structures before the parents cell breaks into

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<v Speaker 1>two daughter cells. Perhaps, as genetics progresses will be able

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<v Speaker 1>to help the process along. Today's episode was written by

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<v Speaker 1>Mark Mancini and produced by Tyler Clang. Brain Stuff is

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<v Speaker 1>a production of I Heart Radio's How Stuff Works. For

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<v Speaker 1>more in this and lots of other cool topics, visit

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<v Speaker 1>our home planet, how Stuff Works dot com and for

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