Photo: a landscape hidden under the ice appeared for 40 thousand years – ElSol.com.ar – Diario de Mendoza, Argentina

After the melting of a glacier on Canadian Baffin Island, appeared landscapes that were buried under Arctic ice for about 40,000 years, said a study by researchers from the University of Colorado at Boulder (United States), published last week in the journal Natural Communications.

The university website says in a statement that last August, specialists took 48 plant samples from 30 different locations – about one kilometer from the current ice cap, in the area revealed by the thaw – to determine their age.

The badysis showed that the old vegetation is 40,000 years old: it is the highest figure that can be determined by radiocarbon dating. However, Simon Pendleton, study director of the University's Arctic and Alpine Studies Institute, told Live Science that the found plants can be even older. The work states that this year's temperatures, which made the merger possible, were recorded at the site 115,000 years ago.

"The Arctic is currently warming two or three times faster than the rest of the world, so naturally, glaciers and ice sheets will react more quickly," Pendleton said.

"Being able to be here and see that change is … I do not have a right word for that," the specialist repeated. "It takes your breath away," he added.