A MYSTERIOUS HOLE HAS BEEN FOUND IN ANTARCTICA

A team of scientists has recently discovered a mysterious hole as large as the surface of Castilla-La Mancha on the sea ice cover around Antarctica, specifically near the coast of the Weddell Sea.

This polynesia (the open space of water surrounded by sea ice) is the largest observed in the Weddell Sea since the last decade of the 70s and its extension covers about 80,000 square kilometers. This is the second consecutive year in which that hole is formed in the Antarctic winter, but in 2016 was not so great.

However, researchers caution that it would be "premature" to blame climate change for such an opening on Antarctic sea ice, the University of Toronto (Canada) reports in a statement.

Kent Moore, professor of atmospheric physics at the University of Toronto, told the Vice portal that pollinia will have a major impact on the oceans. "He seems to have just drilled a hole in the ice," he added.

Moore has been working on the Carbon Observations and Modeling of Carbon and Climate in the Southern Ocean (Soccom) project, administered by Princeton University (USA), to analyze polynesia using satellite technology and robotic floats, which are capable of operating under sea ice.

Moore told National Geographic that the open water area has been detected for more than a month. "It's simply remarkable that this polynia went away for 40 years and then came back," he added.

He stressed that it is normal for pollen to form in the coastal regions of Antarctica, but the unique feature of this case is that it is "deep in the ice sheet".

Scientists believe that this phenomenon may be due to the fact that deep waters in the Antarctic Ocean are warmer and saltier than surface waters, so that convection occurs and warm water rises to the surface, melting sea ice.

Fuente: ABC