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.
Polar orbiting satellites give us twice daily complete coverage of both polar regions. Yes, they’ve been watching it continuously for 40 years.
That’s what I thought.
It was that or The Twilight Zone.......................
It’s Global Warming!
Better send in Dirk Pitt and NUMA to investigate.
Only the best for such a job!
Could be. In their universe, Titanic is in one piece.
Weak spots in the deviated magnetic field following more outer core movement, more seismic activity and volcanism, more leaks, more little surprises.
Bingo.
An opening to Atvatabar! Should be another one at the Arctic area!
Hollow Earth theory was popular with the masses back in the 1960s.
Simple explanation, massively overweight penguins and their passion for volleyball.
Well, warm (actually HOT) lemonade is the only way to get the sugar (pure cane, not refined) to dissolve properly.
Sounds like a deep sea volcano or fissure in earth’s crust.
In Antarctica, the part that is in the "western hemisphere" is called "West Antarctica"
Sorry, but the line to the port-a-potty was just too long, so I went on the ice.
LOL. I spent about 15 minutes I’ll never get back looking through Predator clip art before deciding on that picture.
Perhaps Kim Jong Un’s nuclear tests have awakened Godzilla.
It’s algore thawing out.
volcano
“C & H pure cane sugar from Hawaii!”
Only, I don’t think they grow sugarcane in Hawaii anymore.
They do grow this stuff called “Howlie”.
I’d ask a native what some crop was and he’s look at me and say “Howlie”.
It grows everywhere over there.
Wow. Step away from Free Republic for a few minutes to get some work done, and look what happens.
Aliens. NAZIs. Hobbit. Poe. Global warming. New ice age. Asteroids. Hobby Lobby. Stargate. Atlantis. Blame Trump. Hans Brinker. H. P. Lovecraft / Cthulhu. Volcanos. Cocoa Puffs. The Kraken (Clash of the Titans or Bitcoin alternative?). Yellow snow. Chuck Todd. Chuck Schumer. Alien vs. Predator. Dirk Pitt. Underground tunnels. Chuck Norris. Harvey Weinstein. Giant squids. Michael Jackson. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. The Twilight Zone. Star Trek. Superman. Hollow Earth theory. Massively overweight penguins. Kim Jong Un’s nuclear tests. Godzilla. And Al Gore.
All the good memes are already taken.
Alex, I’ll go with the Red Dragon for a $100.
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