What the ice hides: 12 scary finds found in glaciers

Ice is the best way to preserve something that has been known since time immemorial. The ice of our planet holds many secrets that we have yet to unravel. And what has already been found strikes the imagination and only spurs interest for further searches.

Giant Virus

Researchers from the University of Marseille in France, together with Russian colleagues from the Institute of Physico-Chemical and Biological Problems, have found a new virus in the permafrost of Siberia, which has lain there for 32 thousand years.

Inca Ice Maiden, Peru

The mummy of a 14-15-year-old girl was found on the slope of the Nevado Sabancaya volcano in Peru in 1999. Experts suggest that the teenager and several other children were selected for the sacrifice because of their good looks.

Three mummies were found, which, unlike the embalmed Egyptian ones, were subjected to deep freezing. The body of a seven-year-old boy was examined, but scientists have not yet decided to examine the remains of a six-year-old girl. It is likely that it was once struck by lightning, which may affect the accuracy of the results of the study.

The version of the sacrifice of the three children is confirmed by the artifacts located next to them: gold, silver, clothes, bowls of food and an extravagant headdress made of white feathers of unknown birds.

The mummy of the Princess of Ukoka, Altai

The mummy was called the Altai Princess. It is believed that Ukoka died in the V-III century BC and belongs to the Pazyryk culture of the Altai Territory.

The boy's mummy, Greenland

Not far from the Greenlandic settlement of Kilakitsok on the west coast of the world's largest island, an entire family was discovered in 1972, mummified by low temperatures. This boy wasn't even a year old when he died. Scientists have determined that he had Down syndrome.

Ice Man, Alps

The Similaunian man, who was about 5,300 years old at the time of discovery, making him the oldest European mummy, was given the nickname Ezi by scientists. On September 19, 1991, it was discovered by a couple of German tourists while walking in the Tyrolean Alps. The remains of an inhabitant of the Chalcolithic era are perfectly preserved thanks to natural ice preservation. It made a real sensation in the scientific world-nowhere else in Europe have we found perfectly preserved bodies of our distant ancestors.

Juanita from the Peruvian Andes

Thanks to the cold of the Andes peaks, the mummy is very well preserved and now belongs to the Museum of Andean Sanctuaries in Arequipa, but often moves around the world in a special sarcophagus.

Frozen Mammoth

On the islands of the Novosibirsk archipelago, the carcass of a female mammoth was found well preserved in the ice. In addition to soft tissues, the researchers got another valuable "gift" — mammoth blood. It did not freeze at a temperature of minus 10 degrees, and scientists suggest that this feature helped the mammoths to survive in the cold.

Baby mammoth Yuka

The baby mammoth was found near the Laptev Sea, and it was named Yuka. Scientists believe that the Yuka died (yes, experts are inclined to believe that it was a female) at least 10 millennia ago at the age of two and a half years: her tusks were just beginning to erupt.

The wreckage of Sigismund Levanevsky's plane

The expedition of the Russian Geographical Society accidentally discovered wreckage on Yamal that may belong to the H‑209 aircraft of the pilot of the Glavsevmorputi Sigismund Levanevsky. The plane and its crew disappeared without a trace in August 1937. No human remains were found. Perhaps the pilots left the cockpit, but did not reach the people.

Remains of World War I soldiers in the Alps

As the ice melts, the bodies of World War I soldiers begin to surface. In 2014, the remains of 80 soldiers who died during the First World War were found in the melted Alpine ice, almost all of them well preserved and turned into mummies.

Along with them were found photos of the war years, maps, and even products that were perfectly preserved in the cold. The soldiers were given a real military funeral. Now the main task is to preserve this heritage.

Married couple

The remains of Marcelin and Francine Dumoulin were found in the Swiss Alps, in the Zanfleuran glacier. Police confirmed their identities after a DNA test. The pair were found together with a backpack, a watch and a book. The couple left seven children, who were sent to foster homes after two months of unsuccessful searches.

Frozen baby woolly rhinoceros

Yakut scientists for the first time in the history of paleontology have found partially preserved remains of a baby woolly rhinoceros, buried under the permafrost about 10 thousand years ago. This finding will help them understand how these animals survived in the harsh glacial climate.