Weird News

[Lamplighter]

NY Tiimes
Melting in Andes Reveals Remains and Wreckage
By SIMON ROMERO
Published: January 15, 2011

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The discovery of Mr. Pabón’s partially preserved remains was one of a growing number
of finds pulled from the world’s glaciers and snow fields in recent years
as warmer temperatures cause the ice and snow to melt, exposing their long-held secrets.

The bodies that have emerged were mummified naturally, with extreme cold and dry air
performing the work that resins and oils did for ancient Egyptians and other cultures.
Up and down the spine of the Andes, long plagued by airplane crashes and climbing mishaps,
the discoveries are helping to solve decades-old mysteries.

“It looks like the warming trend seen in many regions is continuing,” said Gerald Holdsworth,
a glaciologist at the Arctic Institute of North America in Calgary, Alberta.
“There are still some large snowbanks left in promising places, and many glaciers
of all different shapes, orientations and sizes, so the finds could go on for a long time yet.”

Some discoveries are personal, allowing families closure
after years of mourning loved ones who appeared to have vanished.
Others have added alluring clues into the history of human migration, diet, health and ethnic origins,
said María Victoria Monsalve, a pathologist at the University of British Columbia who studies ice mummies.

She said some of the most valuable discoveries in recent years include three Inca child mummies
found on the summit of Mount Llullaillaco in northern Argentina and a 550-year-old iceman
discovered by sheep hunters in northern British Columbia.

Younger mummies can also add to the historical record. In 2004, three well-preserved soldiers
were found in a scene of high-altitude fighting from World War I in the Italian Alps.