Another Alarm Call from the Arctic: Its Rivers Are Turning Orange

Monday, February 02, 2026

The rusty influx comes from iron, once trapped in frozen ground but now released by warming earth and flooding into the watershed. Alongside it, scientists have detected toxic levels of metals like copper and zinc -- all of which are threatening wildlife, people, and ways of life that have persisted for millennia.

Posted by reinheitsgebot at 02:31 PM | 3 COMMENTS | permalink

Colorful changes are unfolding in the Arctic. As permafrost melts, plant growth turns the glacial north green while metals like iron leach into hundreds of rivers, turning them orange. This @bipisci.bsky.social episode explores what happens when we go Cold to Hot. ð�§ª Listen: bit.ly/3ZxzkuF

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-- SETI Institute (@setiinstitute.bsky.social) Jan 26, 2026 at 3:00 PM

Comments

... The rusty influx comes from iron, once trapped in frozen ground but now released by warming earth and flooding into the watershed. ...

Not the only instance of ~stuff~ that had been trapped in frozen earth, but now seems to be escaping due to a warming climate.

#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2026-02-02 12:16 AM

Arctic tundra becoming source of carbon dioxide emissions: 2024 Arctic Report Card released (December 2024)
globalocean.noaa.gov

... After storing carbon dioxide in frozen soil for millennia, the Arctic tundra is being transformed by frequent wildfires into an overall source of carbon to the atmosphere, which is already absorbing record levels of heat-trapping fossil fuel pollution.

The transition of the Arctic from a carbon sink to a carbon source is one of the dramatic changes in the Arctic that are documented in NOAA's 2024 Arctic Report Card. Climatic shifts are forcing plants, wildlife and the people that depend on them to rapidly adapt to a warmer, wetter and less certain world. ...