Underwater non -covered secret structures. Then it disappeared under the Antarctic waters.

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• 2022 An international team of scientists sent a 20 -foot -long autonomic underwater vehicle (AUV) called Ran to circle the never -explore region after the Dotson ice shelf in West Antarctica.

• The study revealed a complex dynamics that determines the faster melting rate between the western and eastern part of the ice shelf.

• 2024. Returning to the area to the catalog’s changes on the ice shelf, Ran lost its lost waves of the icy waves to explore this critically important, climate change.

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By finding out the solution, it helps to solve the problem from all possible angles. The same can be said for the melting of ice-induced ice in Antarctica, so the International Thwaites Glacier Cooperation (ITGC) programmed an automated underwater vehicle (AUV) -anenated Ran-to dive into the Dotson Ice shelves near the Thwaites Glacier West Antarctica, efting.

Within 27 days, the submarine has traveled more than 600 miles, including 10 miles straight into the cavity itself to find out how glaciers are melting faster near strong underwater currents and look at the topography of this important ice shelf. Experts of this underwater nature have found that attributes in the western part of the ice shelf are very different with the eastern part, which is thicker and is therefore slower.

The Ran AUV also created the lower maps of the high -resolution Dotson ice shelf, which revealed strange tears on the particle features, icy plateaux and detailed erosion patterns. The results of the study were published last week in magazine Scientific progress;

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“In the past, we used satellite data and ice core to observe how glaciers change over time,” said Anna Wåhlin, the main study author said in a press release; “By browsing the underwater underwater cavity, we were able to get the maps of high -resolution ice in the bottom of the ice. It’s a bit like the back of the moon.”

Unlike glaciers that rest on land, ice shelves are actually part of the ocean. They are like acting as a support that prevents ice on land to flow into the ocean and lift sea level and is vital to this polar ecosystem. And since these shelves are resting on the ocean, it is possible to get beneath them.

But just because it is possible does not mean that it is easy.

20 -foot -long run in underwater pulsed sound waves (Advanced Multibeam Sonar) on the ice to mark its features, but because of their subantarctic location Wåhlin and its team could not communicate with AUV or follow their movements GPS. After 14 missions, one for a couple of hours and the other for more than a day – RAN was planned about 50 square miles of ice, and the structures depicted were more complex than anyone imagined.

“Maps have provided us with a lot of new data we need to look at,” said Wåhlin in a press release. “Obviously, many of the previous assumptions about the preconditions of the glacier’s lower melting are lacking. Current models cannot explain what we see sophisticated models. But this method we have more opportunities to find answers.”

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One of the discoveries of the team is that the different melting speed between the Dotson ice shelves in the east and the western parts can be explained by the phenomenon known as the modified circumolar deep water (MCDW), which is when the Pacific and Indian Ocean combination with other local water masses. These data were supplemented by measurements of these underwater currents, as well as high fracture melting speeds through the glacier.

Although the initial mission of the team was to investigate the nearby Thwaites glacier, the environment was too difficult. But the Dotson ice shelf was the perfect candidate to try equipment and methods The New York Times; These surveys were conducted in 2022 and the team returned earlier this year to see what the ice shelf changes had happened. That’s when the fears of Wåhlin and her team were implemented – Ran No appears at a pre -planned meeting point; The team suspects AUV either drove the land or became the target of some curious seals.

“Although we received valuable data, we did not get everything we expected. These scientific progress was possible for the unique underwater, which was,” said Wåhlin in a press release. “This study is needed to understand the future of Antarctic ice sheet and we hope we can change the ran and continue this important work.”

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