Melting ice causes alien treasures to 'hide' in Antarctica

Rising temperatures in Antarctica cause meteorites - alien treasures - to sink before researchers can collect them, according to The New York Times.

One way to find meteorites is to quickly go south. Some regions of Antarctica have what looks like a regular old rock but is actually a piece of an asteroid, the moon or even Mars. About 60% of known meteorites have been collected here.

The massive amount of meteorites in Antarctica probably does not come from many extraterrestrial objects falling there, but simply because they are more visible on the Antarctic ice sheet . "It's super easy for the naked eye to spot a dark rock on a white surface ," said Cari Corrigan, a geologist at the Smithsonian Institution and in charge of the National Museum of Natural History's meteorite collection (USA). ), said.

The continent also has many places known as blue ice areas . They are often located near mountains, the terrain has overlapping layers of ice and strong winds continuously erode the surface. These are ideal conditions to focus on detecting and exploiting meteorites that fell millennia ago.

A new specimen was recorded. (Photo: Katherine Joy/University of Manchester).

"Hiding" meteorites

The scientific investigation of extraterrestrial matter to shed light on how the Solar System formed billions of years ago will probably become more difficult in Antarctica in the coming decades. The reason is that as temperatures rise, thousands of meteorites sink into the continental ice and disappear from sight every year, according to a new study published on April 8 on Nature Climate Change.

In recent years, researchers have discovered many Antarctic specimens that are partially frozen instead of lying exposed on the surface.

According to Veronica Tollenaar, one of the lead authors of the paper published in the journal Nature Climate Change , most meteorites have dark surfaces, which are heating up more and melting the ice beneath them.

"The meteorite will sink. The more the temperature increases, the more intense the melting process will be, " said Ms. Tollenaar and her colleagues.

Using the model they developed, the team estimated the number of meteorites that would be visible in Antarctic blue ice regions under different warming scenarios. They found that between 4,000-6,000 meteorites will disappear from sight each year over the next few decades. By the end of this century, three-quarters of the meteorites that once lay on the ice may "hide".

Harry Zekollari, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich (Switzerland) and Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), who led the research along with Ms. Tollenaar, said meteorites rich in metals such as iron are at the highest risk of disappearing because they conduct heat well, meaning it transfers heat to the surrounding ice more easily.

Researchers found a meteorite during a 2009-2010 expedition. (Photo: Steven Goderis/Vrije Universiteit Brussel).

"Run with time"

From here, Ms. Tollenaar proposed that future Antarctic expeditions to search for meteorites should prioritize locations at lower altitudes. Those are also places that tend to warm up and have a high risk of meteorites disappearing in the next few years.

Places with many meteorites in Antarctica are often located at altitudes of nearly 1,800m to more than 2,011m. However, nearly 9/10 of the meteorites at that altitude will disappear from view by the end of the 21st century, the research team calculated.

'It is important to put all efforts into the most "sensitive" places ,' Ms. Tollenaar said.

Dr Corrigan, who has made two trips to Antarctica to search for meteorites, acknowledged the urgency: "We want to get out there and collect as many meteorites as possible before they disappear."

According to Dr. Zekollari, technology can help. Most meteorites in Antarctica are found the old-fashioned way: through a network of hikers or snowmobilers. Now, efforts to use technology such as drones to scan the ice are underway.

"We need to be more productive. It's a race against time ," he expressed.