Arctic 'zombie fires' rising from the dead could unleash vicious cycle of warming

So-called"zombie fires" in the peatlands of Alaska, Canada and Siberia disappear from the Earth's surface and smoulder underground during the winter before coming back to life the following spring. These fires puzzle scientists because they appear in early May, way ahead of the usual fire season in the far north, and can reignite for a number of years.

At the start of 2024, more than 100 zombie fires were active in the Canadian province of British Columbia alone. Zombie fires have even been recorded near the coldest village on earth, Oymyakon in north eastern Siberia, where they carried over through multiple winters and account for around 3.5% of area burned in the wider region each year.

By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.The first is that those microbes can generate so much heat that underground peat can smoulder at around 80°C over the winter, ready to ignite in spring. And this can happen without there ever having been a fire in that spot above ground, and without the weather above ground reaching the sorts of temperatures that would normally be needed for soil to burn.

We still do not have proof this happening in the real world, and it hasn't been demonstrated in a lab – for now, this is a phenomenon seen only in our models. But we do know that compost can catch fire in the same way. For instance a large fire on the outskirts of London during a heatwave in 2022 was probably caused by a pile of compost spontaneously combusting.

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