{"id":20873,"date":"2025-09-11T11:35:38","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T06:05:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=20873"},"modified":"2025-09-11T13:32:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-11T08:02:30","slug":"permafrost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/permafrost\/","title":{"rendered":"Permafrost"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Permafrost Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In a groundbreaking discovery in Siberia, scientists recently uncovered a 44,000-year-old wolf, nearly perfectly preserved in permafrost. <\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Permafrost<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Permafrost is any <\/span><b>ground that remains completely frozen<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201432\u00b0F (0\u00b0C) or colder\u2014f<\/span><b>or at least two years straight.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Where are they found?<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These permanently frozen grounds are most common in regions with<\/span><b> high mountains and in Earth\u2019s higher latitudes<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014<\/span><b>near the North and South Poles.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Permafrost can be found <\/span><b>on land and below the ocean floor.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Permafrost <\/span><b>thickness <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">can range from <\/span><b>one meter (about three feet) to more than 1,000 meters<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (about 3,281 feet), <\/span><b>covering entire regions,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> such as the <\/span><b>Arctic <a href=\"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/tundra-ecosystem\/#:~:text=About%20Tundra%20Ecosystem-,Tundra%20ecosystems%20are%20treeless%20regions%20found%20in%20the%20Arctic%20and,windy%2C%20and%20rainfall%20is%20scant.&amp;text=Low%20temperatures%3A%20The%20average%20temperature,degrees%20Fahrenheit)%20in%20tundra%20region.\" target=\"_blank\">tundra<\/a><\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>or a single, isolated spot, such as a mountaintop<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of alpine permafrost.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Permafros<\/span><b>t covers large regions of the Earth<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><b> Almost a quarter <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of the land area in the <\/span><b>Northern Hemisphere has permafrost underneath.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While two years is the minimum for permafrost consideration,<\/span><b> some regions <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">have had <\/span><b>frozen ground for hundreds of thousands of years.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Scientists discovered the <\/span><b>oldest known permafrost in Siberia<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which has been <\/span><b>frozen for the past 650,000 years.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>What Is Permafrost Made Of?<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Permafrost is made of a combination of <\/span><b>soil, rocks, and sand<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that are <\/span><b>held together by ice.\u00a0<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The <\/span><b>soil and ice<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in permafrost <\/span><b>stay frozen all year long.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Although the ground is frozen, <\/span><b>permafrost region<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">s are <\/span><b>not always covered in snow.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Near the surface<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><b>permafrost soils<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> also <\/span><b>contain large quantities of organic carbon<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014a material <\/span><b>leftover from dead plants<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that couldn\u2019t decompose, or rot away, due to the cold.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Lower permafrost layers contain soils <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">made mostly <\/span><b>of minerals.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>A layer of soil on top <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">of permafrost does <\/span><b>not stay frozen all year<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This layer, called the <\/span><b>active layer,thaws during the warm summer months and freezes again <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the fall.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>In colder regions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the ground rarely thaws\u2014even in the summer. There, the <\/span><b>active layer is very thin<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u2014only 4 to 6 inches (10 to 15 centimeters).<\/span><b> In warmer permafrost regions<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the<\/span><b> active layer can be several meters thick.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A <\/span><b>thawing permafrost <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">layer can lead to<\/span><b> severe impacts<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> on people and the environment.\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For instance, <\/span><b>as ice-filled permafrost thaws,<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it can <\/span><b>turn into a muddy slurry <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">that cannot support the weight of the soil and vegetation above it.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><b>Infrastructure <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">such as roads, buildings, and pipes c<\/span><b>ould be damaged as permafrost thaws.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Additionally, <\/span><b>organic matter<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (like the remains of plants) <\/span><b>currently frozen <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">in the permafrost will <\/span><b>start to decompose when the ground thaws, <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">resulting in the <\/span><b>emission of methane and carbon dioxide<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> into the atmosphere. This c<\/span><b>ontributes to further global climate change.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/indiandefencereview.com\/44000-year-well-preserved-wolf-permafrost\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">IDR<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Permafrost is any ground that remains completely frozen\u201432\u00b0F (0\u00b0C) or colder\u2014for at least two years straight. Read more about Permafrost, Features, Regions, Latest News<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20874,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2620,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-20873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-permafrost","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}