The Great White North is an unforgiving and eerie place that has produced many amazing stories and tales of folklore. Even out there in real world, there are many intriguing scientific mysteries about the Arctic. It is thought that when climate change starts to make the ice melt, most of the mysteries will be solved, but until now they’ve been living completely undiscovered for thousands of years. We’ve gathered the most intriguing of them in our list below.
5. The Dorset Culture
5. The Dorset Culture
The Paleo-Eskimos were among the first people to inhabit the American Arctic. They, however, completely disappeared around the thirteenth century, leaving only a few traces of their presence from which scientists performed DNA testing and found out that the Dorset Culture has been completely differently built than the rest of the human race. One of the anthropologists on the case said: “The Dorsets were the Hobbits of the eastern Arctic—a very strange and very conservative people who we’re only just getting to know a little bit.” Nobody still knows why they completely disappeared so early.
4. The Monster Of Lake Iliamna
4. The Monster Of Lake Iliamna
The largest body of fresh water in Alaska, Lake Iliamna, is also the place of multiple sightings of strange giant creatures. Most scientists think that the monsters might be the big sleeper sharks that can grow up to 20 ft. However, no proof of the sharks has been found and the reports of the monsters still remain
3. Rain-On-Snow
3. Rain-On-Snow
Alaska also knows meteorological phenomena. One of them is a case of the snow turning into rain even though the temperature outside is way below 0°C. Instead of the snow melting when it hits the ground, the rainwater seeps through the snowpack, pools on top of the frozen soil, and then freezes into an impenetrable shell which prevents animals from being able to come out from under the snow. Nobody can explain why it rains when it shouldn’t.
2. Baffin Island Vikings
2. Baffin Island Vikings
In 2012, several findings of jewelry, bones and cutlery were found that belonged to the Vikings in Arctic. Even though there’s no real evidence of the Vikings ever actually inhabiting the coldest place on Earth, the latest findings really do present a mystery.
1. The Zeleny Yar Necropolis
1. The Zeleny Yar Necropolis
In 2014, 34 shallow graves with 11 bodies were found in the Arctic, which would suggest that the isolated area was a trading post around the 12th or 13th century AD. The bodies had crushed skulls and five mummified adult males were found shrouded in copper plates and wrapped in reindeer, beaver, wolf, or bear fur. One of the bodies had red hair and was buried with a bronze belt buckle with a bear design. All of this points to a long-lost Arctic culture, with real life communities and villages living in the hostile environment for ages.