Environment

The Amazon Rainforest's Silent Killer - Understory Fires

Deforestation in the Amazon rainforest may capture most of the headlines, but NASA scientists have found a previously-undiscovered killer lurking under the tree tops: understory fires.

The extent of damage caused by these fires is so great that it has destroyed more of the Amazon in recent years than deforestation.

These understory fires have escaped NASA's satellites throughout the years because they are hidden from view and all that escapes through the thick tree canopies are wisps of smoke.

Amazon forests are quite vulnerable to fire.

According to the study, understory fires between 1999 and 2010 ravaged 2.8 percent of the Amazon, or 33,000 square miles of forest. While grasses and shrubs in the Amazon savannah can handle fires that can spread up to 330 feet per minute, the trees and plants underneath the thick forest canopy cannot. Understory fires burn at a slow rate of only a few feet per minute, but destroy 10-50 percent of the burn area's trees. A slow but efficient killer of the forest.