Have you ever imagined what the hidden side of a giant ice shelf in Antarctica might look like? Images collected by a drone submarine reveal to us a dramatic landscape and mysteriousmade of deep crevassessculptural terraces and large depressions carved into the ice. You will be amazed from the wonders that nature hides beneath the frozen surface.
A team of scientists has lately mapped the hidden side of the ice shelf Dotsonin Antarctica, using an underwater drone called Ran. These images, published in the journal Science AdvancesThere they provide a vision without precedents of how the waves oceanic shape and erode the immense ice shelves.
A landscape sculpted by the sea
When I saw these pictures, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. “We had no idea it could look like this,” said Anna Wahlin, an oceanographer at the University of Gothenburg and the study’s lead author. Powerful ocean waves shape the ice in unexpected ways, creating a landscape that seems to have emerged from an alien world.
Peter Davis, an oceanographer with the British Antarctic Survey and a collaborator on the study, compared the far side of the ice shelf to “a beach after the tide has gone out“The images contradict scientists’ previous belief that the waves should have smoothed the ice floor. This reveals new dynamics of how the sea interacts with glaciers.
Antarctica: Forecasts and preparations for the future
These new findings are crucial for comprehend better understand the evolution of ice shelves and predict sea level rise more accurately sea caused by the heating global.”This wealth of information could help us predict sea level rises more accurately,” David Holland said, professor of mathematics and ocean sciences at New York University and contributor to the study.
Not only that, this information could guide us in creating more resilient cities and neighborhoods in areas at risk of being submerged by rising sea levels. The hope is that society will pay attention to the signals that glaciers are sending us.
Imagine of walk on a beach after the tideobserving the shapes leave from the waves. Now, carry this image under thousands of tons of ice in one of the environments most inhospitable on the planet. This is the reality that scientists have discovery and that we have to comprehend to protect the our future.
And you, what do you think? How can we take action to mitigate the effects of global warming? Share your ideas and join the conversation. Together we can make a difference.
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