Alaska burial oddities

[episodic]

:shocked:

As the spring thaw softens ground that has been frozen hard as granite by the long Alaska winter, cemeteries start burying people who died during the past seven months.

I honestly did not know about this - guess it makes sense. I could explain it, but its just best to give the link. . .



Yahoo Link

 

[biostud]

Atleast it's cheap to keep the bodies frozen untill the ground softens. Just place them outside in the cold 😀

 

[Eli]

Bizzare... lol

So does it take burried bodies a long time to decompose in some parts of AK? LOL...

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: Eli
Bizzare... lol

So does it take burried bodies a long time to decompose in some parts of AK? LOL...

Sure, in this one book I read about a man living in alaska for a year or so, he traveled to different parts of AK. One time, he was up north, past the arctic circle. The family he was staying with had a dog. It died. They just stuck it outside. He wen't out for a few minutes and actually stepped on the frozen dog.

 

[Thoreau]

At least they don't have to deal with moles.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Thoreau
At least they don't have to deal with moles.

LOL...

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: Eli
Bizzare... lol

So does it take burried bodies a long time to decompose in some parts of AK? LOL...

Yes. In fact, they want to exhume some corpses up here that died of the great flu epidemic all those years ago so they can get a sample of the virus.

I never really considered the Spring burials an oddity. It's just something you deal with when you live up here.

EDIT: Just read the story, that's in Fairbanks, just up the road from where I live. They had to do a Spring burial when my friend Mike committed suicide during high school years ago. 🙁

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteve

Originally posted by: Eli
Bizzare... lol

So does it take burried bodies a long time to decompose in some parts of AK? LOL...

Yes. In fact, they want to exhume some corpses up here that died of the great flu epidemic all those years ago so they can get a sample of the virus.

Yea, I remember reading about that. Some Russian sailors that died in the flu pandemic of 1918 IIRC.

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteve

Originally posted by: Eli
Bizzare... lol

So does it take burried bodies a long time to decompose in some parts of AK? LOL...

Yes. In fact, they want to exhume some corpses up here that died of the great flu epidemic all those years ago so they can get a sample of the virus.

Yea, I remember reading about that. Some Russian sailors that died in the flu pandemic of 1918 IIRC.

Why does the whole scenario sound like the opening scene of a disaster movie?

 

[sparkyclarky]

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteve

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: ShotgunSteve

Originally posted by: Eli
Bizzare... lol

So does it take burried bodies a long time to decompose in some parts of AK? LOL...

Yes. In fact, they want to exhume some corpses up here that died of the great flu epidemic all those years ago so they can get a sample of the virus.

Yea, I remember reading about that. Some Russian sailors that died in the flu pandemic of 1918 IIRC.

Why does the whole scenario sound like the opening scene of a disaster movie?

That would make an awesome flick - pitch that to the movie makers!

 

[MazerRackham]

Permafrost is impossible to dig in, right? You'd probably need explosives to open up a burial site in the winter...

 

[Rumpltzer]

Originally posted by: Excelsior

Originally posted by: Eli
Bizzare... lol

So does it take burried bodies a long time to decompose in some parts of AK? LOL...

Sure, in this one book I read about a man living in alaska for a year or so, he traveled to different parts of AK. One time, he was up north, past the arctic circle. The family he was staying with had a dog. It died. They just stuck it outside. He wen't out for a few minutes and actually stepped on the frozen dog.

Yeah, I watched a documentary on Sir John Franklin's final (attempted) 1845 expedition to the North pole. Their ships got trapped in the ice. Desperate, freezing and starving, the survivors resorted to cannibalism... and then they eventually all died from exposure/starvation, hastened by lead poisoning from their poorly canned food.

They figured out the part about the lead poisoning by pulling up the bodies buried in the ice. They looked pretty "fresh" for 150 year old corpses!

 

[ShotgunSteven]

Originally posted by: MazerRackham
Permafrost is impossible to dig in, right? You'd probably need explosives to open up a burial site in the winter...

It's not permafrost, that's when the ground further down never thaws, thus the "perma" prefix. The surface ground freezes pretty solid during the Winter here, though.