I wanted to answer more of your questions:

How old is the tree that you cored (bored)? We don't know yet. We haven't counted the rings. Right now we are just collecting data, we aren't analyzing it.

Will melting permafrost cause an earthquake? No. Permafrost melts more slowly and causes more subtle changes in the land. We saw an entire slide show on permafrost melt and we could see how hills caused by permafrost, called palsas, slowly flatten out. That is just one way that melting permafrost changes the land though.


Will more plants grow because of melting permafrost? Or will more plants die from having too much water? Both. It depends on what kind of plants they are and where they are. Example: There are some areas that might get more water as melting permafrost pools into puddles, streams, ponds or lakes. The covered vegetation would die, but new aquatic plants would probably start to grow instead.

What is under the permafrost? It depends on what kind of permafrost it is and where it is. Here in Churchill we have something called continuous permafrost. That means that all of the land underneath us is frozen. You might have to dig fairly deep to hit permafrost and then there might just be rock underneath that layer. In other areas you have something called discontinuous permafrost. That means that some areas have permafrost and others do not. It might be a fairly thin layer, so there may just be thawed soil underneath, or there may be a layer of rock. There are all kinds of ways that permafrost form, so there may even be a layer of water underneath.

Is there anything living in permafrost? No. Insdie the permafrost scientists actually find many dead things that were once living and these things are very well preserved.

What causes the Northern Lights ? Light particles from the sun meet up with gas particles in our atmosphere. The light particles energize the gas particles and it makes them glow. The North Pole is the best place for this to happen. Something similar happens in the South Pole as well though. Those lights just have a different name.

I'll answer more questions later. I hope you all keep writing in!
Miss Santoro