While cruising around the western coast of Antarctica , polar investigator stumble across a never - before - seen island that ’s recently been revealed to the world by a retrograde glacier .
Scientists fromThwaites Glacier Offshore Research(THOR ) spot the rocky landmass while sailing around Pine Island Bay in the first place this month aboard the icebreakerRV Nathaniel B Palmer . Within a few twenty-four hours , after some removed observations , the team became the first people to coiffe infantry on the island and even meet a few of its nautical mammal resident .
The island has aptly been dub “ Sif ” as a homage to the Norse goddess of earth , and married woman of Thor .
“ This island is on no charts we bed of,”tweetedJulia Smith Wellner , a glacial marine geoscientist for THOR .
“ After being the first visitors , we can now confirm that Sif Island is made of granite and that it is covered by remnant frosting shelf , and a few seals , ” she said ina subsequently tweet .
The THOR labor is a joint venture between the US and the UK to study one of the most unstable glaciers in Antarctica , the Thwaites Glacier , as well as the surrounding waters in the Pine Island Bay of the Amundsen Sea . Both the Thwaites Glacier and thePine Island Glacierare some of the fastest - retreat glacier in Antarctica , primarily due to warm ocean water from the Amundsen Sea that diffuse under the Methedrine , causing it to unfreeze . The meld glacier meth then becomes tease apart from the bedrock below , do it to flow quicker and deeper underneath the ice shelf .
A first glimpse of Sif island suggest the trash on the island was once part of the Pine Island Glacier ice shelf . pair with satellite data of the area , the researchers consider the country was reveal at some point over the preceding decennium due to the ice ledge melting because of mood change . However , asNaturereports , it ’s remained hidden for many years because very few ship travel that far to the south , and its ice - topped cap stand for it was difficult to see from the viewpoint of a satellite .
While this discovery might not be awe-inspiring newsworthiness for our planet , it does present some incredible new opportunities for glaciologists and geologist . Melting glacier aid to release pressure level from the Earth ’s crust , displacing sway and causing the mantle underneath to “ seep ” out , changing Earth ’s shape . By studying the geology of Sif island , researchers can gain a deeper understanding of how mood variety and back out glaciers are touch this orphic continent .
" Antarctica ’s geology is so Methedrine - covered , we really do n’t know much about it , " Jim Marschalek , Ph.D. student in Earth Science at Imperial College London who was part of the expedition , state in astatement . " There are n’t any other outcropping rock for 70 kilometers [ 43 mile ] in any direction , so this was a special opportunity . "
