[pvaldes]

If this shows something crystal clear is that if the litter is let alone it doesn't burn necessarily. Just accumulates and made deep soil. The only wildfires in Chernobyl since 2014 were those provoked by soldiers. No men messing around + no cattle or farmers = no big wildfires.

Of course we want this litter to remain just where it is as many decades as we can, but under each rock there is always an idiot, so the healing process is never guaranteed.

[wongarsu]

It's also worth noting that Ukraine gets 5-10 days of rain per month year around (or snow or other precipitation), and the driest month is comparable with San Francisco's October in terms of total precipitation.

No humans messing around plays a big role, but everything being wet most of the time certainly helps.

[dendrite9]

It seems the forest conditions/fuel load are very different in Ukraine from places like California, the Rockies, or Turkey. Lightning starts wildfires completely free of human intervention.

[sva_]

> The only wildfires in Chernobyl since 2014 were those provoked by soldiers

Not exactly true. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_Chernobyl_Exclusion_Zone_...

[pvaldes]

Thanks for the update. This proves my theory

> "At least one suspect was arrested for alleged arson".

> "the local young man has confessed to starting fires for fun"

Ok. Lets change "soldiers" by a more generic "human pieces of s*t".

I wonder if any fossil were radioactive before to became a fossil. That would made the process much easier.

[flangola7]

At one time there were natural nuclear reactors. Veins of uranium rich enough to fission.

[bboygravity]

One hypothesis is that the moon was basically spat out by a supercritical natural fission reactor inside earth at a time when the earth was still rotating much faster. Basically slinging a part of itself into space to form the moon.

I love that hypothesis.

[gus_massa]

Sadly the current most popular hypothesis in the scientific community is the collision of a smaller version of the Earth with another planet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_Moon

[NikkiA]

Oddly enough, that article doesn't mention the name 'Theia' or even link to the larger page on the collision theory that searching for 'Theia' brings...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theia_(planet)

[bequanna]

Apples and oranges. I believe this area in Ukraine is considerably wetter vs. many Western US forests that typically see large scale wildfires.

[pvaldes]

All forests in the planet follow basically the same rule. The more time left undisturbed, the more water will fix in the area. Top ecosystems in the chain have typically plenty of water. Lower forms have less and less water and are more unstable.

"There are huge wildfires because no water in the area".

This is a lie that we tell ourselves. There is not water in the area because wildfires. Many of this fires were deliberated crimes and would have burn with or without water. The lack of water is a scar of a previous attack.

Somebody should build a forest Matrioska with a tiny cow cranium in the inner figure. Maybe this way the people would finally understand the obvious rule. After a few thousand years untouched, all forests became "rainforests".

[bequanna]

> After a few thousand years untouched, all forests became "rainforests".

Yea… I’m pretty sure this isn’t true.

There are many remote forests in Canada for example that haven’t been logged maybe ever and those areas still experience occasional large scale wildfires.

[zdragnar]

There are a number of species whose seeds don't germinate without wildfire. Not all regional climates are equal.

[pvaldes]

Of course, but they will not appear, or be residual in the climax of the ecosystems. Its strategy is live fast and leave a beautiful charred corpse. The normal trend in this planet is to replace this opportunists by other species when the ecosystems mature. See "theory of stress" in ecology.

In short a little stress is good, for both ecosystems and humans, (it develops a better immune system). But too much stress is catastrofic, and this is the current situation with the "clean forest" mantra.

[EB-Barrington]

I was living in Kyiv during the last Chernobyl fires (2020) - they were BIG.

There have been others - it's a very dry place in summer.