As the permafrost melts, a bunker dating from World War I has reappeared. Researchers and a journalist were able to get inside the fortification, which seems to have frozen over time.
Discover our latest podcast
Positive climate change effect
Located near the Scorluzzo mountain in Italy, at an altitude of 3000 m, this bunker would be a hundred years old! According to the Telegraph, it is a building that was built by the Austro-Hungarian army during the Great War.
Around the bunker, one can also see the trenches, that global warming seems to be digging out.
Professor Stefano Morosini, from the University of Bergamo, said:
This may be one of the positive effects of climate change.
Accompanied by a journalist and a historian, the professor entered the bunker, which housed about 15 soldiers during the conflict.
The professor adds:
Here, during the First World War, there was a large glacier called Platigliole. The glacier has totally disappeared. You can see the inside of this shelter thanks to the melting of the permafrost.
The bunker
Nature has preserved the bunker so well that it does not seem to have moved an inch in a century. Inside, the group discovered cutlery, tools, shell casings and even straw, on which the soldiers slept.
From an archaeological perspective, this seems to be an amazing discovery. The researchers must not lose a minute to study the place and take samples to avoid any degradation due to the melting ice.
The professor further explained:
We have an opportunity, but it must be seized quickly. We have an opportunity, but it must be seized quickly, because this type of place contains all sorts of artefacts, but also scientific traces of what life was like from a botanical, entomological and glaciological point of view a hundred years ago.
