48 Thousand Years old ‘Zombie’ virus found in Artic ! What will happen..!

Many viruses and bacteria are found in the snow of extreme cold regions like Siberia or Russia, from the bodies of animals from thousands of years ago. Now, even in the North Pole i.e. the Arctic, a 48,500- year- old ‘zombie’ virus has been found in the permafrost there. The very low temperature layer of snow and soil is called ‘permafrost’. Currently, due to warming, such permafrost is melting. Due to this, the danger of awakening dangerous viruses that have been lying dormant for thousands of years has increased.

Such viruses can be dangerous to both animals and humans. Scientists have now discovered a similar deadly virus dating back 48,500 years. Permafrost is like a time capsule. Dead bodies of animals and viruses from thousands of years ago survive in them. The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the Earth. Therefore, the permafrost there is also melting rapidly. NASA’s Jet Kimberly Minor, a climate scientist at the Propulsion Laboratory, said many things about permafrost are changing rapidly, and that’s a concern.

Permafrost covers a fifth of the Northern Hemisphere. Jean- Michel Claverie, a professor of genomics at the Aix- Marseille University School of Medicine in France, has collected some samples from the Siberian permafrost to trace the virus frozen in this ice. A virus lying dormant in such ice is called a ‘zombie virus’. He discovered the first such virus in 2003. It was given the name ‘Giant ‘Virus” due to its large size. In 2012, Russian scientists discovered a 30,000- year- old virus. Since then many such viruses have been discovered.