Posted on 07/31/2021 8:37:31 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
Scientists are beginning to unlock the mysteries of glacier ice worms which are the largest organism on Earth that spend their whole life cycle in ice. "It's happening," scientist Scott Hotaling told a reporter for OPB as he gestured across Paradise Glacier high up on Mount Rainier in Washington.
He was referencing hundreds of thousands of tiny, black worms emerging from a vast expanse of white snow.
Ice worms were first discovered in 1887 on Alaska's Muir Glacier. They have since been spotted on most of the coastal glaciers in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon. It was an exciting discovery because, for the longest time, biologists considered high-altitude glaciers sterile places where life was essentially impossible.
“I think they're like the mascot of mountain glaciers in the West," Hotaling told AccuWeather about ice worms. They're incredibly cool, they're incredibly abundant and they're the largest organism on Earth that spends its whole life cycle in ice. "When they're around, there are hundreds per square meter. You cannot walk without stepping on them...so, it's a very dramatic thing when they are present."
The inky, black ice worms are only about an inch long and are distant cousins to earthworms. Instead of dirt, these worms wiggle through glacial ice eating snow algae, bacteria and anything else that ends up on the snow.
They may spend their entire lives in snow and ice, but ice worms can't survive subfreezing temperatures. Hotaling has conducted thermal testing and says the ice worms can survive comfortably for at least a day or two in temperatures as high as 75 degrees Fahrenheit (around 24 degrees Celsius), and although they thrive at temperatures around 32 degrees Fahrenheit (zero degrees Celsius), they die when temperatures drop below that threshold.
(Excerpt) Read more at accuweather.com ...
It’s The End of Times. Snow Sharks on the horizon! We’re doomed.
Thank you! Next time someone asks me “what’s happening” I’ll know what to say.
I can just imagine them crawling towards each other and joining up to make something bigger, like a giant worm.
Save the Ice Worms!
Lol…I like that…”Hey Bro…what’s happening?”
“Ice worms, man.”
Count on FR to prepare you for the daily challenges of life!
they’re incredibly abundant and they’re the largest organism on Earth that spends its whole life cycle in ice.
wait. ERROR ERROR ERROR but global warming is melting all the ice , if ice is melting how can they be incredibly abundant ERROR ERROR
I created...error.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw3zzMWOIvk
Like the Sand Worms of Arrakis, only cooler.
I thought of the worms on Dune
intriguing
Fish bate for BIG FISH, sell them to the Chinese.
I’m confused by this: “although they thrive at temperatures around 32 degrees Fahrenheit (zero degrees Celsius), they die when temperatures drop below that threshold.” So, they die at temperataures that sustain long-term ice? I would think temperatures above freezing would be too hot for them to survive.
Will they attack the Murder Hornets?
bait
Ya don't say.
Mt Rainier has lost nearly all of its glaciers in the northwest slopes, nearly to the summit at 14,410 feet. They are trying to blame the 3 day hot streak we had for this major deglaciation and wrap it in with globull warming.
Oddly enough, Mt Baker to the north has normal snow pack. (2,000 feet lower altitude.)
If Rainier is warming from within, they haven’t said anything about it. But it does seem odd that lower volcanoes still have their snowpack, and Rainier has lost one entire side.
Baby Graboids.
***Snow Sharks on the horizon!***
Worse are the Snow Snakes! We were warned of them back in 1968 when I was in the Military and sent to Canada and Alaska.
They did not realize I knew what a Snow Snake really was.
https://www.oneidaindiannation.com/snow-snake-traditional-winter-game-of-the-haudenosaunee/
So the tiny ice worm is the largest organism on earth?
Who writes this
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