Top 20 Creepiest Things Found Frozen in Ice
Top 20 Creepiest Things Found Frozen in Ice
Top 30 Strange and Creepy Things Found Frozen in Ice
You never know what you’re going to find hidden in the frozen tundras of the world. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’ll be counting down our picks for the Top 20 creepiest things found frozen in ice. For this list, we’ll be looking at many creepy, unsettling, or bizarre things that have been found frozen and preserved in ice.
#20: Lifeforms in a Subglacial Lake
Life really does seem to find a way! Lake Vostok is a massive subglacial lake found in Antarctica, located beneath the East Antarctic Ice Sheet. The lake has been sealed away under 13,100 feet of ice for millions of years. That means no sunlight, unimaginably freezing temperatures, and immense physical pressure from the surface. Yet studies of ice cores have concluded that the lake could be home to exotic microbes. In fact, one team found evidence of over 3,500 species. It’s theorized that this little society lives on its own recycled carbon; however, the results are debated, with other scientists believing that the samples were contaminated.
#19: A Martian Meteorite
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On December 27, 1984, a team from the Antarctic Search for Meteorites found a small fragment of Martian rock buried in the ice. Now known as Allan Hills 84001, the meteorite weighs just over four pounds and is estimated to have formed from molten rock over four billion years ago. Said meteorite made national headlines in 1996 when scientists claimed to have found fossils of microscopic bacteria within the rock - which seemingly confirmed that there’d once been life on Mars. However, this claim was enormously controversial within the wider scientific community and was ultimately rejected due to a lack of substantial evidence. Life or no, a four billion-year-old rock from Mars is still pretty creepy on its own...
#18: An Entire Mountain Range
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Located in East Antarctica is the subglacial Gamburtsev Mountain Range. Discovered by Soviet geophysicist Grigoriy Gamburtsev, they’re said to be the same size as the Alps. They tower roughly 9,000 feet high, and run for about 750 miles. The only thing is, you can’t actually see the mountains themselves, as they’re buried under 2,000 feet of ice! We don’t know about you, but we find the concept of an entire mountain range buried under 2,000 feet of ice weirdly disturbing. The Earth really is a fascinating place, isn’t it?
#17: Sacrificed Incan Children
In 1999, three mummies were found at the icy summit of Llullaillaco, a stratovolcano located in the Atacama Desert. These mummies are known as the Children of Llullaillaco, and they could be the best-preserved mummies in the entire world. One is the body of a teenage girl, and the other two are children believed to be around six and seven years old. It’s assumed that they are the victims of a human sacrifice meant to ensure a rich harvest and that they were killed around the year 1500. They were heavily drugged with alcohol and coca, placed five feet underground while asleep, and left to die. A combination of the freezing temperatures and extremely dry air have helped preserve their bodies for centuries.
#16: Yuka the Mammoth
Now just imagine coming across the mummified corpse of a freaking woolly mammoth! Well, that’s exactly what happened to the local people of Yukagir, a village near the Laptev Sea of Siberia. Found in 2010, the mammoth died approximately 39,000 years ago. Even at somewhere between six and eight year old, it weighed roughly five tonnes. It’s now on display in Moscow, and it is...quite creepy, to say the least. You can clearly make out its face, and stringy strands of light brown hair still cling to its body. It’s considered to be the best-preserved mammoth in the world, and we can certainly see why!
#15: A Body
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Sadly, we’re not talking about an ancient mummy for this one. In 2017, a hiker discovered a dead body in a crevasse on New Zealand’s Fox Glacier, and contacted police. While some believed the corpse was decades old, the fact that it was found in a crevasse led glaciologist Andrew Mackintosh to assume that it was no more than five years old. His guess was correct. Further study found that the corpse was that of Cynthia Charlton, a British woman who died in a helicopter accident in November 2015. She was one of the crash’s seven victims, which also included her husband.
#14: Mexican Climbers
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Now here’s a creepy story for you. A climber on the slopes of Mexico’s Pico de Orizaba slipped and came face to face with a mummified head and arm protruding from the snow. That’s how episodes of “CSI” start! The authorities were called in, and two more frozen mummies were eventually discovered. An 81-year-old named Luis Espinosa declared he knew the mummies, as he was part of a tragic expedition that claimed three lives back in 1959. He recognized one of the men from his shirt and ring, which was emblazoned with his initials. It’s certainly nice for Luis to finally get some peace. But just imagine being the guy who found a mummified head sticking out of the snow!
#13: The Remains of Andrée’s Arctic Expedition
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In the late 19th century, Swedish balloonist S. A. Andrée set out to reach the North Pole via hot air balloon. Many experts claimed that this was a terrible idea, but Andrée’s optimism and nationalistic pride caused him to ignore their warnings. He and two companions set off in July 1897...and were never heard from again. It wasn’t until 1930 that their remains were found by an expedition studying the nearby glaciers. Included in the find was preserved photographic film, allowing us to see the tragedy first hand - including photos of the crashed balloon. The balloon had crashed just two days after liftoff and the men had trekked back south. They died approximately three months later.
#12: A Preserved Mummy Head
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In 2017, archaeologists found mummies buried in the Zeleniy Yar burial site near the Russian town of Salekhard. They found two mummies - one an adult woman and the other a baby. These mummies are estimated to be 900 years old and are said to be part of an unknown Medieval culture. The interesting thing was that the female mummy is the only female in the burial ground, leading some to assume that she was an elite member of society. It’s also interesting (and creepy!) because only her head has been preserved. On the head you can still see her hair and eyelashes, and her face has a green tint due to the copper she was buried in.
#11: Three Members of the Franklin Expedition
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Many are familiar with the ill-fated Franklin Expedition from Dan Simmons’s novel “The Terror” and its television adaptation. Three members of the expedition - John Torrington, William Braine, and John Hartnell - passed away shortly after departure and before the ships became stuck in the pack ice. They were buried on Beechey Island, Nunavut in 1846 and exhumed in 1984. What anthropologists found were remarkably preserved corpses, albeit incredibly disturbing ones. Their faces are contorted, their eyes frozen open, and their skin horribly frostbitten. Now imagine opening the coffins and seeing that...
#10: Ice Caves & Frozen Waves
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We don’t know if this is spectacular or oddly terrifying. Iceland’s Vatna Glacier is Europe’s second-largest ice cap, covering roughly 8% of the country. It’s quite a famous glacier and has been seen in many pieces of pop culture throughout the years, including “Game of Thrones” and the James Bond film “A View to a Kill.” Beneath the glacier are massive ice caves, with ceilings and walls that look like giant waves frozen in time. They’re actually created by geothermal springs. It’s surreal, it’s gorgeous, but it’s also kind of unsettling. Talk about feeling claustrophobic!
#9: Ötzi the Iceman
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Ötzi is perhaps the most famous natural mummy in the world. Found in 1991 on the border of Austria and Italy, Ötzi is the naturally mummified corpse of a man who died around 3300 BC. The mummy was actually found by German tourists. They were hiking along a mountain path in the Ötztal Alps when they found the upper half of the mummy sticking out of the ice. It’s currently believed that the man bled to death after being struck by an arrow. His skinny, discolored, and leathery-looking body is now on display at Italy’s South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology.
#8: A Mysterious Pyramid
Top 20 Creepiest Things Found in the Ocean
The internet was abuzz in 2016 when a mysterious pyramid-like structure was photographed in Antarctica. Some people speculated that humans once inhabited Antarctica and built pyramids like the Egyptians, and conspiracy theorists went straight to aliens. It was creepy and it was intriguing, even if we knew the explanation was going to be boring. And it was. Turns out that the “pyramid” was just the peak of a buried mountain sticking out of the snow. As University of California’s Eric Rignot hilariously and succinctly put it, “This is just a mountain that looks like a pyramid.” Still kind of cool we guess, just not as cool as an ancient Antarctic society!
#7: Dinosaur Bones
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It turns out that many dinosaur bones have been found in the frozen tundra of the Antarctic. The first were discovered in 1986 by Argentinian geologists Eduardo Olivero and Roberto Scasso, who unearthed remains of an ankylosaur now known as Antarctopelta Oliveroi. These bones were found on James Ross Island, as were bones of a Trinisaura. Other dinosaurs found in Antarctica include those of a Glacialisaurus and the massive carnivore Cryolophosaurus. But it’s not like these dinosaurs were roaming an icy landscape. Antarctica as we know it only formed about 25 million years ago, long after the dinosaurs had gone extinct. Before that, it was part of a supercontinent called Gondwana and was actually quite tropical!
#6: Ancient Bacteria
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Scientists digging in the Arctic permafrost of Alaska made a startling discovery in 2005. They found ancient bacteria that had been completely frozen in the ice for roughly 32,000 years! To make matters even creepier, this bacteria came back to life after being thawed, with astrobiologist Richard Hoover claiming, “They immediately started swimming when the ice melted.” According to NASA, this made the bacteria “the first fully described, validated species ever found alive in ancient ice.” The extremophiles are now known as Carnobacterium pleistocenium, and they are absolutely terrifying. They came back to life! After 30,000 years!
#5: Mysterious Holes
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In 2016 and 2017, people around the world were creeped out when massive holes appeared in the Antarctic ice. These holes were found in the Weddell Sea and one covered an area of 31,000 square miles, making it roughly the size of Maine. Now that is one big hole. Experts deduced that this was a “polynya,” which is the fancy term for a hole of open water in the middle of sea ice. And while scientists knew what the hole was, they didn’t know how it got there, as polynyas are typically found near the coast. Known as the Weddell Polynya, it hadn’t been seen since 1976. It was likely caused by an intense winter cyclone.
#4: Bloody Looking Water
If this list proves anything, it’s that Antarctica is the place of nightmares. Where else can you find what looks like blood pouring out the side of a glacier? The area is fittingly named Blood Falls, and it flows from Taylor Glacier onto the surface of Lake Bonney. The Falls were discovered in 1911 by Australian geologist Griffith Taylor (hence Taylor Glacier). After presumably freaking out, Taylor attributed the “blood” to red algae. It was a good guess, but the “blood” is actually just saltwater tainted with large amounts of iron oxide. Yep, Blood Falls is essentially just rusty water pouring from a glacier. Still horrifying, though.
#3: Viruses
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One major fear of global warming is that it could release unknown pathogens into the air, some of which may have the capacity to seriously hinder and endanger humanity. In 2015, researchers from China and the United States traveled to the Guliya ice cap in Tibet and drilled a 164-foot hole into the ice to study samples. What they found was positively nightmarish - no less than 33 different viruses, 28 of which had never been seen by human eyes. According to environmental virologist Chantal Abergel, “We are very far from sampling the entire diversity of viruses on Earth.” That’s positively unsettling, considering 28 were found in a Tibetan glacier alone!
#2: World War I Soldiers
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During World War I, Allies battled the Austro-Hungarian Empire along the snowy mountains of the Alps. Thousands upon thousands of soldiers were killed by avalanches and the frigid temperatures, which sometimes dipped to -22 Fahrenheit. Beginning in the early 2010s, the mountain ice began to melt and started depositing long-lost frozen artefacts around the area. These included weapons, still-legible love letters, and dozens of mummified corpses. It’s a horrifying symbol of one of the most frightening periods of modern history.
#1: Remains of a Military Transport Aircraft
In November 1952, a military transport aircraft carrying 52 people crashed into Alaska’s Chugach Mountains. Rescue crews were sent to look for the aircraft, and its tail was found sticking out of the snow on Mount Gannett at an elevation of 8,000 feet. The crash had caused an avalanche and buried the wreckage, and rescue efforts couldn’t dig through the thick snow. Rescue was abandoned and the wreckage was lost for the next 60 years. It wasn’t until June 2012 that it was rediscovered by the Alaska Army National Guard. While on a training mission, they discovered the plane’s survival raft on Colony Glacier, roughly 14 miles from the crash site. This led to an investigation that uncovered the nearby wreckage.
