Tuesday June 4, 2024
Australia News —
Pristine, crystal-blue inland waterways have turned into ‘milky orange juice’ in a remarkable phenomenon which is worrying scientists.
Remote rivers and streams in northern Alaska’s Brooks Range are undergoing a dramatic transformation, changing from their characteristic crystal clear blue to a murky orange hue.
This alarming phenomenon, which is being attributed to minerals exposed by thawing permafrost – permanently frozen ground common in polar regions – has been documented in a new study published in Nature Communications: Earth and Environment.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers from the National Park Service (NPS), US Geological Survey (USGS), University of California, Davis (UC Davis), and other institutions have recently sampled and analysed the murky waters.
They have identified 75 locations affected by this discolouration across a vast, Texas-sized region in northern Alaska.