Posted on 10/12/2017 11:31:02 AM PDT by Red Badger
A hole the size of Maine—or larger than the Netherlands, depending on which geographic mass means more to you—has opened up in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. In an otherwise thick layer of sea ice, still frozen from the Antarctic winter, the hole is an aberration.
Ice scientists aren’t sure what’s going on, but they’re all talking about it.
“It looks like you just punched a hole in the ice,” atmospheric physicist Kent Moore, of the University of Toronto, told Vice’s Motherboard.
Autonomous float deployed in 2015 has resurfaced unexpectedly inside polynya & started transmitting data https://t.co/qnyTYRVoOy @NSF pic.twitter.com/JgfwdDtBoc
— The Antarctic Report (@AntarcticReport) October 12, 2017
Moore, along with the Southern Ocean Carbon and Climate Observations and Modelling (SOCCOM) group at Princeton, are studying the mysterious hole, which showed up in satellite images around Sept. 9.
Antarctic sea ice freeze season in review – look for the formation of the #WeddellPolynya. Extent remains well below average (colored lines) pic.twitter.com/0HWFnDvA0D
— Zack Labe (@ZLabe) October 2, 2017
Scientists call holes surrounded by sea ice “polynyas.” National Geographic explains that polynas are created when ocean currents push warm water toward the surface, melting the ice that lies on top. As the surface water comes into contact with the Antarctic atmosphere, it cools and sinks, then heats up again and rises back toward the surface.
This particular polynya previously appeared for multiple seasons in the 1970s. The hole opened up again last year for the first time in four decades, and reappeared, even larger, last month.
The mid-1970's featured an even larger polynya; there is a nice recent summary from @NASAEarth at https://t.co/2ScNCyK3d2. Fascinating! pic.twitter.com/PedPgbFGDc
— Zack Labe (@ZLabe) October 2, 2017
Right now, why the hole opened again is a mystery. Moore says it would be “premature” to connect it to climate change, though his team is analyzing data to better understand what could have caused this.
“This is now the second year in a row it’s opened after 40 years of not being there,” Moore told Motherboard. “We’re still trying to figure out what’s going on.”
Amazing how the #WeddellPolynya withstands / stears the local #SeaIce dynamic. Winds can't seem to close it. pic.twitter.com/zSQkcCJ6DV
— Thomas Lavergne (@lavergnetho) September 26, 2017
But Earther notes that another team, from the Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research in Kiel, Germany, believes its reappearance confirms their climate variability models, which suggested the polynya could show up again.
“While many climate models tend to produce such a large open ocean polynya, the feature was viewed more as a disruptive model glitch than a true phenomenon in the past,” Torge Martin, a meteorologist and climate modeler at the Helmholtz Centre, told Earther. “Its recurrence supports our hypothesis… that the Weddell Polynya was not a one-time event but possibly occurred regularly in the past.”
The news of the hole comes close behind other indications of major change in Antarctica. A few weeks ago, an iceberg over twice the size of Paris broke off from Pine Island Glacier in West Antarctica, in the same place that two other major ice calving events have taken place in recent years. And this week, a new paper published in Geophysical Research Letters found that warming oceans are dramatically undermining the integrity of an important floating ice shelf in West Antarctica. The warm water is carving what Washington Post reporter Chris Mooney called a “huge, upside-down canyon” in the ice sheet from below. The canyon cuts almost halfway through the Dotson ice shelf.
The status of the ice shelf doesn’t have a direct impact on sea-level rise, since it is floating and therefore already displacing as much water as it would if it turned to liquid. But its stability is critically important; like other floating ice shelves, Dotson holds back large glaciers from sliding into the sea, which would definitely affect sea levels.
And the market was doing so well
Yep.
One of the first things my Dad taught me.
Right along with, “Change that channel again while I’m sleeping and I’ll break your arm.”
It was like growing up with Socrates.
Volcano eruption.
A Hole bigger than Maine? Is it F Chuck Todd? Chuckle Schumer?
Dang it! I was thinking the same thing.
Better send in Dirk Pitt and NUMA to investigate.
It’s that time again when young predators are released by the mother ship to start their right of passage. In a few days, they will make their way to the undersea temple where they will face off against xenomorphs, who have been waiting close to a century for this moment to arrive.
Let’s just pray that there isn’t an expedition in the works to discover the temple, for that could be deadly.
Beat me to it by 2 minutes. lol
Is this the supposed lake below the ice where the Russians were drilling a while back?
Lake Vostok breakthrough: Russian scientists drill ‘clean’ hole into Antarctic subglacial basin
https://www.rt.com/news/226127-lake-vostok-russia-water/
Or the melting could be caused by heat from the underground Nazi base.
Or perhaps it’s just the shadow of a cloud?
You've watched that same spot continuously for 40 yrs?
The Weddell Sea is on the western side of Antarctica — the part with volcanoes and hot springs. I would not be surprised if there was an underwater volcano cranking up in the sea there.
They were over the ground. This is in the ice shelf..................
Young pre-daters are going to face off against xylophones?
There is nothing I enjoy more than a bunch of kids who have never gone on a date having a xylophone challenge.
I’m pretty sure that’s how the Rolling Stones got started.
Chuck Norris was visiting a research station down there, and the toilet was out of order...
You've watched that same location continuously for 40 yrs? Has anything interesting happened there in between hole appearances to keep you waiting in anticipation? What keeps you coming back, penguin porno?
Must be reaaaallllly bored......................
Whiners are now complaining about a waterhole in that desert.
So, it happens to be a saltwater hole. Give it time. Maybe saltwater marsh will spring up around it, making it an oasis.
Summer in the Southern Hemisphere has arrived...
How do they know it wasn’t there 40 years ago?
It may have been buried under ice and snow......................
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