Ancient soil shows part of Greenland was ice-free — and could soon melt again, scientists say

As soon as Andrew Christ peered at the sample inside his microscope, he knew he had found something special. Bits of tiny twigs, moss and leaves were mixed with sediments extracted from deep beneath a Cold War military facility on the Greenland ice sheet. It was as if he’d opened a time capsule from the deep past — revealing proof that a tundra ecosystem once flourished where there is now nearly a mile of ice.

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