Scientists to visit hidden Antarctic ecosystem

A scientific team wants to travel to Antarctica to monitor how life reacts to a rapidly changing climates and in 2018 the team will set out on their mission.

This is only possible because of retreating ice shelves that are exposing a area of seafloor previously cut off from the rest of the world.

A team of scientists, led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS), is planning an urgent mission to investigate a mysterious marine ecosystem that's been hidden beneath an Antarctic ice shelf for up to 120,000 years. The researchers want to discover how this marine ecosystem will respond to environmental change in a climate-sensitive region... phys.org...

The massive calving of the Larsen C Ice Shelf A68 iceberg, which is four times the size of London, exposes around 5,818 km2 of seabed. The research team is planning a ship-borne research cruise to the region before the biological communities there begin to change following the movement of the giant iceberg. Read more at: phys.org...

will examine the marine ecosystem spanning the water column from the surface of the ocean all the way to the seabed and the sediment." Read more at: phys.org...

This is an enormously large iceberg!! Normally it takes longer to plan a research cruise like this but people are making it happen! exiting times we live in.
Simply fascinating! I hope their findings are well documented so we can all see whats been hidden by this ice sheet!

Its just a funding grab, they could explore this anytime using ROV's.

a reply to: gdkknxnqkc

a reply to: Charlyboy

And where exactly do you think they operate the ROV's from when operating along the coast of Antarctica? It couldn't be from the research vessel that they're sending down could it? It's not like human divers are going to be exploring the sea floor in that environment after all.

I've always wondered if they are worried about them floating away couldnt they just chain it to the mainland so it freezes again intact

like use giant chains and anchors and basically tie them together?

originally posted by: sapien82
I've always wondered if they are worried about them floating away couldnt they just chain it to the mainland so it freezes again intact

like use giant chains and anchors and basically tie them together?

I believe the iceberg was pushed of the glacier by the glacier moving down to-wards the ocean, so perhaps that might not be a good idea.

a reply to: pikestaff

yeh , is it a subduction of the glacier into the ocean
what is the plate tectonics of the region ?

I will check it out

I always wondered why they didnt just link all the floating parts with giants chains
or some new spider silk rope or something like that
use giant tug boats a full fleet to push the giant iceberg back towards the main body and hope it refreezes

a reply to: peter vlar
yes of course.... ?? Bet there is a 3 year monitoring project written in all tied in to climate change. I used to write them.