Since 2003, scientists have found four ancient viruses stored in melting ice and the most recent of which was estimated to be about 30,000 years old.
According to The Washington Post, the long frozen virus - Mollivirus sibericum - was found in ice melting in the Arctic. It measures 0.6 microns across, which is actually big enough for the authors of the study published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences to call it a "giant" virus.
"A few viral particles that are still infectious may be enough, in the presence of a vulnerable host, to revive potentially pathogenic viruses," Jean-Michel Claverie, one of the study's lead researchers, told Agence France Press. "If we are not careful, and we industrialize these areas without putting safeguards in place, we run the risk of one day waking up viruses such as small pox that we thought were eradicated."
The new study indicates that ancient viruses may be able to literally re-surface after even thousands of years gone if massive amounts of ice in the Arctic continue to melt at current and projected rates, The Post noted.
"We cannot rule out that distant viruses of ancient Siberian human (or animal) populations could reemerge as arctic permafrost layers melt and/or are disrupted by industrial activities," the researchers wrote in the new study.
But the researchers pointed out that focusing on the environmental effects of climate change, such as ice melt, should still be considered more important than long-dormant viruses.
