Forest is discovered after more than a thousand years frozen

Millennial forest is preserved in a kind of ice tomb

frozen forest

Over the past fifty years, some tree trunks have been emerging on the Mendenhall Glacier because of its melting, but it wasn't until 2012 that researchers at the University of Southeast Alaska noticed a large number of upright trees, some of which even had bark. It was the discovery of a forest over a thousand years old.

In an interview with LiveScience, the professor of geology at the University of Southeast Alaska, Cathy Connor, said that there are many trees with the outermost part and even roots preserved due to freezing, which makes it possible to verify their ages. Based on the diameter and types of trees that grow today in the region, the forest is likely to have spruce or hemlock, but researchers need further analysis to confirm.

Lockdown

The teacher also explained that the forest grew at a time when the glacier had shrunk in size. When it expanded again, it covered the forest and a large amount of gravel (which was at an estimated height of 1.5 meters in height). With that, the ice was above the gravel, which preserved the forest in a kind of ice tomb.

frozen forest
Images: Jamie Bradshaw


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