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| · | A Geologic Rabbit Hole |
| 0:00 | · | I have fallen down a rabbit hole which has revealed a major geologic problem. A viewer of |
| 0:06 | · | mine was exploring a remote area on Google Earth when they spotted something peculiar. So, as a |
| 0:13 | · | result they sent me this set of coordinates. These coordinates brought me to a remote and essentially |
| 0:19 | · | uninhabited portion of Yukon just south of the Arctic Circle, specifically to an unnamed riverbed |
| 0:26 | · | in the Ogilvie Mountain Range. Upon zooming in, I instantly recognized the problem. Oh boy, |
| · | An Orange River |
| 0:33 | · | this pristine river in the literal middle of nowhere should not be colored orangish brown. |
| 0:39 | · | I have seen this before, this is clearly acid mine drainage, I have even seen this in Arizona albeit |
| 0:46 | · | on a much smaller scale at a superfund site. So, I asked around with what website in the Yukon I |
| 0:53 | · | should report this to, since I was unfamiliar due to Yukon only having a population of about 46,000 |
| 1:00 | · | people. But, before I did this, I realized that the problem was much, much worse. You see, |
| 1:07 | · | I could find absolutely zero evidence that this very spot was ever the site of a mining claim |
| 1:13 | · | or mine, an illegal dump, or an illegal mine. In fact, I could find zero evidence that this |
| 1:20 | · | very spot had ever seen a human set foot here with mining equipment, meaning that this is not |
| 1:26 | · | acid mine drainage but instead something else. As, by looking around nearby, I can find 5 other |
| 1:34 | · | drainages, streams, and riverbeds where this same process is also occurring. And, it is not |
| 1:40 | · | exclusive to this mountain range either. The same process is also seemingly occurring at streams in |
| 1:47 | · | Canada's Northwest Territories and at more than 5 dozen streams in Alaska's Brooks Range. And, |
| 1:54 | · | while I could not detect this same process to be occurring in any of the countries listed here, |
| 1:59 | · | the conditions are ripe for this same process occurring further down the line. |
| · | Toxic Metals |
| 2:06 | · | These rivers which have turned orange have become acidic, some highly acidic with a pH as low as |
| 2:12 | · | 2.6. Additionally, many of these streams now have elevated levels of lead, arsenic, cadmium, |
| 2:19 | · | cobalt, copper, and zinc along with downright toxic levels of nickel, aluminum, manganese, |
| 2:25 | · | and iron. It should not come as a surprise that wherever these orange rivers appear, fish species |
| 2:32 | · | decline or disappear. So, why are some of the planet's most pristine waterways suddenly becoming |
| 2:38 | · | toxic and unsafe to drink? The answer relates to the thawing of permafrost due to ongoing climate |
| · | Permafrost |
| 2:45 | · | change which has raised world temperatures. For reference, permafrost is a layer of ground that |
| 2:51 | · | remained completely at a temperature lower than that of the freezing point of water for |
| 2:55 | · | two or more years straight. Some patches of permafrost are as much as 700,000 years old, |
| 3:02 | · | while the vast majority of the world's current permafrost is many tens of thousands of years old. |
| 3:07 | · | Permafrost currently underlies 18 million square kilometers or 12% of Earth's landmass. Permafrost |
| 3:15 | · | is an impermeable layer, meaning that groundwater cannot penetrate it while it exists. However, |
| 3:22 | · | as worldwide temperatures rise, which is occurring nearly 4 times faster in the Arctic than the rest |
| 3:27 | · | of the planet, this permafrost layer has shrunk. This has allowed two things to occur. First, |
| · | Bacteria |
| 3:34 | · | large quantities of iron which were previously bound in a layer of permafrost become exposed |
| 3:40 | · | to groundwater, allowing for it to become clustered together in higher concentrations |
| 3:44 | · | where the groundwater flows. This allowed for large quantities of iron reducing and |
| 3:50 | · | cold resistant bacteria to feed off of remains of previously frozen plant and animal remains, |
| 3:56 | · | reducing the abundant iron III ions to iron II ions. The iron II ions then combine with |
| 4:03 | · | oxygen to create a range of oxidized rust colored compounds, which groundwater seeps |
| 4:08 | · | then bring to the surface and into rivers, turning them orange and brown. However, |
| · | Pyrite & Sulfides |
| 4:14 | · | many of these permafrost regions also contain abundant mineral reserves, with one reasonably |
| 4:20 | · | common deposit consisting of numerous sulfide minerals, one of which is pyrite. If pyrite |
| 4:26 | · | is exposed to rainwater, it will react and turn the rainwater acidic. Since patches of pyrite and |
| 4:33 | · | sulfide minerals previously trapped in permafrost are finding themselves now in the active layer, |
| 4:38 | · | they are also being exposed to water for the first time in tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of |
| 4:44 | · | thousands of years. As a result, natural acid mine drainage occurs, and since pyrite often contains |
| 4:51 | · | elevated levels of nickel it carries large amounts of it and iron into regional streams. However, |
| 4:58 | · | due to the increased acidity of the water by the pyrite runoff, other minerals that contain |
| 5:04 | · | potentially harmful compounds become easier to erode by the water, adding other elements to |
| 5:09 | · | the water. And this is why many streams in remote Alaska and Canada are turning orange. As a final |
| 5:17 | · | note, I would like to thank my new YouTube channel member E B for supporting my work! |
