Found them by accident. Treasures buried under the ice – Focus

“If by mid-century, summer temperatures in the Alps will rise by an average three degrees will disappear 80%. glaciers and the highest mountains of Europe will return to the state before five thousand years," predicts Swiss glacjolog Matthias Hass. this is Not the vision haunted czarnowidza, but extrapolation of phenomena that are already underway. There is no doubt that the climate is getting warmer, glaciers are melting. And because ice perfectly preserves organic matter, it can survive for millennia even so a non-permanent products, such as wood, leather, fabric, and human and animal body. When under the influence of heat this natural freezer begins to fade, stood with her objects of great scientific value.

Terrible and magnificent

“the walking patrol the surroundings of the Matterhorn I have seen so many abandoned items that I could open a store with backpacks and equipment alpinistycznym” – said on television bi-bi-si Gerold Biner, pilot of a rescue helicopter. in the Summer of 2013 he saw something he couldn’t identify. During the next flight I looked closer and found that the remains are human. Immediately reported to the police.

a cursory examination showed that it was missing in 1979, the British climber Jonathan Conville. Despite an intensive search, has not been able to find. Family łudziła that Jonathan broke the contact with civilization, he is hiding somewhere in the mountains and still alive. After finding a body in Switzerland came to his two sisters to transfer genetic material to DNA, which were definitively confirm the identity of the deceased. The bodies were in such good condition that women were able to say goodbye to my brother, touching his palm. the “It was terrible and at the same time a wonderful experience,” said the reporter from “The Guardian”.

not Yet subsided, the echoes of this event, when he was found the other bodies. DNA analysis showed that the Japanese climbers Masayuki Kobayashi and Michio Oikawa, who 45 years ago had disappeared in the snowstorm. At the same time, not far from Mont Blanc achieved the desired since 1982 caver from France Patrice Hyverta.

Some are found in melting glaciers secrets can serve as a script melodramatu. When, in 1949, a young Austrian Aloisia Persterer was pregnant, her fiancé Adolf suddenly disappeared. The neighbors had no doubt that he left her. Conservative devout mountaineers had no pity for Mary with the child. Aloisia fled to the town of Lienz and there, more than half a century later, it became known that on the slopes of the Grossvenediger glacier found dead. In his pocket he had a document confirming the identity and wedding rings. the “I Always knew that my Adolf was a decent person, now he knows about it and our daughter,” she said, not hiding the excitement.

Surprise mill

Not every ice the story ends sad, but brings relief to finish. Swiss Peter Hirt has dedicated 18 years to find her son, who in 1985 disappeared with a colleague in the array embankment Tilsit”. Dad was tireless, and sent into the mountains 138 times. When the glacier began to melt, it seemed that, at last, reached the goal – he stumbled on the corpse of a young man. Genetic studies have shown, however, that this companion of his son. It is not known that the body of Daniel Hirta will ever find. As explained by Professor Heinz Slupetzky, glacjolog at the University of Salzburg, “glaciers are not stationary, constantly moving, moving huge amounts of rocks and stones. In this gigantic mill soft the human body is not crushed, should be very favorable circumstances." the more time passes from the conclusion of bodies on the ice, the less chance of their survival. But there are surprises.

Odmrożony virus-giant

– It is twice more, the largest so far known of the virus, has 200 times more genes than the pathogen that causes influenza and has no less than 30 thousand. years! Despite his advanced age, lives, reproduces and may attack other organisms. Opened it three years ago in the samples topniejącej in Siberia’s permafrost.

French biologists Chantal Abergel and Jean-Michel Claverie, specializing in the study of the so-called large viruses, found that 60%. his genetic material resembles nothing so far had contact. Suggest that virus-giant, which was given the name Phitovirus sibericum, pasożytował on prehistoric animals and their extinction succumbed to hibernation. Wanting to check that after thawing is still active, they gave it amebom. Infected protozoa quickly began to die.

according to scientists, there is no indication that the virus was either a threat to people. However, to predict what else is hiding in the Siberian permafrost, which is not quite that melts, it is more przekopywana in search of deposits of raw materials. “If the millions of tons of earth will be subjected to weathering, frozen still pathogens that are in conditions that ensure their resumption of activities”, told AFP Professor Claverie. By the way, hope none of them will be able to attack the person.