8 Amazing Things Uncovered by Melting Glaciers and Ice

Melting glaciers and ice caps are not good, overall, for the environment and sea levels, not to mention the polar bears that live there. As the ice recedes, we are finding some really strange things that were lost underneath them, some ancient, some as recently as the 20th century.

5. WWI SOLDIERS // NORTHERN ITALY
As the highest settlement of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, the small village of Peio in modern-day northern Italy was dragged into the conflict of World War I in 1915. Here, at altitudes over 6500 feet, intrepid soldiers fought in what became known as the White War. Due to the inhospitable conditions and the freezing weather, specialist mountain soldiers were recruited—the Italians had the Alpini, who sported distinctive feathered caps, and the Austrians had the Kaiserschützen. The fierce conflict high in the mountains went largely unnoticed by the rest of the world at the time but today, as the region's ice melts, archaeologists and historians are learning more about the amazing feats of bravery of those involved.
A variety of artifacts have been uncovered from the melting glacier, including a poignant unmailed love letter to a girl named Maria, soldiers’ helmets and guns, and, of course, bodies. In 2012, the mummified bodies of two blond and blue-eyed Austrian soldiers, aged just 17 and 18 years old, were uncovered from the ice—both had been shot through the head and buried in a crevasse on the Presena glacier by their comrades. Locals held a funeral for the pair in 2013, and 200 people from around Peio attended.

Read about artifacts, frozen bodies, geologic formations, and even pathogens unearthed by melting glaciers at Mental Floss.