The dangerous secret.. Watch why some of America’s rivers turned orange and a study reveals the reason

ArabiaWeather - A recent scientific study revealed the reason why dozens of rivers and streams in the US state of Alaska have turned rusty orange.

According to a report by the British newspaper The Guardian, Brett Bolin, author of the study and assistant professor of environmental toxicology at the University of California, pointed out that climate change has led to the melting of the frozen ground in Alaska. This caused the minerals that were trapped in that soil to leak into the waterways.

The reason why some American rivers turn orange

“This is an unexpected impact of climate change on some of the cleanest rivers in our country,” Bolin explained. The College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences at the University of California, Davis, published a video report on its YouTube page, in which an environmental toxicologist pointed out that as permafrost melts, metals are exposed to oxygen. The dissolution of metals such as zinc, copper, cadmium, and iron in water increases its acidity, and the dissolved iron causes color. Rusty, which can be seen even from satellite images.

“When this water is mixed with water from another river, the minerals can become more impactful on the water,” Bolin warned.

The phenomenon was first observed in 2018, when researchers noticed the orange color of rivers across the Brooks Range in northern Alaska, in stark contrast to the clear water seen the previous year.

Within one year, a tributary of the Akilik River in Kobuk Valley National Park saw the complete loss of two native fish species, due to a decline in invertebrates and plants on the river bottom.

See also:

Sky rivers...what are they, how are they formed, and what is their impact on climate change?

In light of climate change...the Arctic is a cake and Russia is dividing its slices

Global warming plays an important role in Russia

Sources:

theguardian